A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – marina lewycka

What’s it about?
Family feuding on a grand scale is the subject of this recent and Orange Prize shortlisted novel. Round 1 – Tractors have very little to do with it as two sisters fight it out go get one over each other, for their eventual inheritance and their father’s love. Round 2 – in the away corner sits busty, bottle-blonde Valentina, sophisticated gold digger who is hiding behind a very thin and battered maternal cloak.

Although billed as a comedy my ribs were barely tickled as I read my way through this, although it’s still not a bad read. It’s actually a perceptive portrait of a family’s fragile relationships thrown into strong relief, as old wounds are torn open when two sisters Vera and Nadezhda are forced to work together against a common enemy who marries their aging father in a bid to take everything he has.

Although there’s a definite fiery female bias, all the characters are tightly drawn, developing naturally with the storyline into a multifaceted whole. You start out hating Valentina, but as you hear about her circumstances you start to ask yourself how right are you to judge so harshly? Whilst you can easily sympathise with Nikolai (Vera and Nadezhda’s father) as he shrivels slowly to a pale shadow of his former sprightly self – he still remains a letch to the end, and you’re going to come to a point where you think won’t he ever learn?

Tractors are mentioned as part of Nikolai’s book, of which we get pages of extracts. At first sight, they seem unnecessary, but are in fact an alternative attempt at character exposition, as they serve to illustrate the old man’s state of mind (not sure if I’d encourage a repeat of that idea).

Is it any good?
At 3 out of 5, worth a read