A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka: book review

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (2005) is set in England from 1996 to the 2000s.

Nikolai Mayevskyj is an 84-year-old Ukrainian who has lived in England since 1946 – 50 years. His wife Ludmilla has been dead for two years. He now wants to marry a 36-year-old Ukrainian woman, Valentina, with a 14-year-old son, Stanislav, whom he has known for only three months. She doesn’t speak English, but she looks like Botticelli’s Venus.

Nikolai begins researching tractors in Ukraine to ‘write his great work.’

Nikolai has two daughters – 57-year-old Vera with two children and 47-year-old Nadezhda with one child. The sisters have been feuding for years. Nadezhda is the author of the story. She has found out that her father wants to marry a gold-digger who would stop at nothing for Western wealth. Nadezhda wants to stop the marriage. Ending their feud, the sisters try everything to dissuade their father from marrying Valentina, everything from ringing the Home Office to tell them that Valentina is on a tourist visa and is working illegally in England, to ringing the British Embassy in Kiev. They have four weeks to stop the marriage.

When the marriage occurs – in Vera’s and Nadezhda’s absence – Valentina’s first demand is for a car, but not any car, for only a Mercedes or Jaguar will do. She gets a Land Rover. The sisters seek an annullment or divorce, or something – anything! Valentina just has to go!

But then the unthinkable happens – Valentina is pregnant.

Interwoven between this family crisis are extracts from their father’s tractor research, the history of Ukraine, the personal history of their father and mother (and how they met), and the quest to maintain a remembrance of their mother.

The dialogue-based writing enables readers to visualize the sisters’ panic, arguments, sarcasm, and persuasion as if in a drama production. This book is light, fast-paced and entertaining. It is an easy read, written with a great deal of wit and humour.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog