A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

Club members generally gave this novel written in 2005 by British author Marina Lewycka the thumbs up for humour. Some of us scored the book 9/10.

It is a comic tale about an elderly Ukrainian immigrant Nikolai, who lives alone in his house in Peterborough after his wife dies. He is hoodwinked by a beautiful Ukrainian woman, Valentina, who is many years his junior, but who wants to find a better life in Britain for the sake of her “brilliant” son, Stanislav. They marry. Nikolai’s daughters, Nadezhda (Nadia), who until this time has prided herself on being liberal towards immigrants, and her older sister, Vera, who admires Margaret Thatcher, are both appalled. They plot to overturn the relationship and get Valentina and her son sent home to Ukraine. The book is narrated by Nadia.

Much of the humour stems from the way that Valentina scorns Nikolai after the wedding for not being as wealthy as she had hoped, with a “crap car", and for being an old man with a “squishy squashy flippy floppy” (he’s 84). She also criticises her interfering sister-in- law for being a “no tits crow”. Valentina, by way of contrast, is very well endowed and likes to wear green satin bras that show off her assets. While Members felt that Valentina bordered on being a caricature we were happy to go along with it for the sake of the humour. We also compared the plot with true stories we knew about ‘love matches’ which were clearly a vehicle for immigration for one party or the other.

The story could have just been a farce from start to finish but woven into the plot are translated excerpts from the book which Nikolai, a former engineer, is writing about the history of the development of tractors in the Soviet Union (and tanks for that matter).

Additionally, details of the treatment of Ukrainians by the Soviet authorities over the years pepper the novel. We felt the family history, which Nadia slowly discovers, to be quite believable.

Added to this is a subplot about the estrangement of the two sisters because of the ten year difference in their ages, disagreement over the terms of their mother's will, and their very different attitudes to life and family from the experiences of their childhoods. Bridges are built as the two sisters join forces to save their father from the clutches of Valentina and her son (who turns out to be just a very average student).

While the book was written 16 years ago, we felt it has stood up well to the passage of time and has not become too dated.

Who is Marina Lewycka?

Marina Lewycka is a British author of Ukrainian origin. She was born in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany, after World War II. Her family subsequently moved to England and she now lives in Sheffield. She graduated from Keele University in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy. In 1969 she completed a Bachelor of Philosophy in English Literature. She began but did not complete a PhD at King’s College London.

She was a lecturer in media studies at Sheffield Hallam University until her retirement in March 2012.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was Lewycka’s first novel and won the 2005 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing, the 2005/6 Waverton Good Read Award, and the 2005 Saga Award for Wit. It was long-listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction.

Lewycka has written four other novels: Two Caravans (2007), We Are All Made of Glue (2009), Various Pets Alive and Dead (2012), and The Lubetkin Legacy (2016). Lewycka has also donated short stories to Oxfam and Amnesty International anthologies.

In addition, she has written books giving practical advice to the carers of elderly people which were published by the charity, Age Concern.