book review a short history of tractors in ukrainian

'I had thought this story was going to be a knockabout farce, but now I see it is developing into a knockabout tragedy,' Nadezhda says at one point, and though she is referring to Valentina, she might also be describing this unusual and poignant novel. Nadezhda, who has never known much about her parents' history, pieces it together with her sister and learns that there is more to her cartoonish father than she once believed. But then Lewycka's comic narrative changes tone. Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must aside a lifetime of feuding to save their emigre engineer. Predictable and sometimes repetitive hilarity ensues. Description for A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian Paperback. In the meantime, Nadezhda, a socialist, and Vera, a proud capitalist, confront the longstanding ill will between them as they try to save their father from his folly. Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must set aside a lifetime of feuding to save their migr engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. In this atmospheric debut, a young Native girl investigates the mysterious disappearance of women from her tribes reservation. Smitten with the ambitious hussy, their father forges ahead to help Valentina settle in England, spending what little pension he has buying her cars and household appliances and even financing her cosmetic surgery. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian Written by Marina Lewycka Two feuding sisters join forces against their aged father's glamorous, gold-digging new girlfriend in Marina Lewycka’s hilarious debut novel.

It is clear to Nadezhda and her sister, Vera, that the femme fatale Valentina is only after Western luxuries-certainly not genuine love of any kind. Nikolai, an 86 year old retired Ukrainian engineer and tractor historian in Peterborough, has fallen in love with 36 year old Valentina.

The premise of Lewycka's debut novel is classic Viagra comedy: a middle-aged professor's aging and widowed father announces he intends to marry a blonde, big-breasted 30-something woman he has met at the local Ukrainian Social Club in the English town where he lives, north of London.

Book review a short history of tractors in ukrainian