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Sto caricando le informazioni... A short history of tractors in Ukrainian (2005)di Marina Lewycka
  
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 Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro.   ) beentsy | Aug 12, 2023 |   ) mbmackay | Mar 15, 2023 |  ) TeresaBlock | Feb 14, 2023 |  ) oceaninmypocket | Nov 29, 2022 | Two years after his wife's death, eighty four year old Nikolaj has fallen in 'love' with buxom bottle blonde thirty four year old Ukrainian Valentina. They subsuquently get married and Nikolai's daughters Vera & Nadezhda must join forces despite the arguements that have coloured their relationship for the last few years. In some ways I enjoyed this book & in others I didn't. I'm a real history buff so I found the backstory of WW2, the Russian civil war & the resulting fallout afterward which actually explains why most of the main characters were the way they were (ie, not likeable). I actually realised I didn't really like any of the main characters in the end. Nadia is ok, but a bit whiny (peace time baby) (plus did we really need to know all her thoughts? It just made her sound petty). Vera is so negative & cynical she makes Professor Snape look like a bag of rainbows & Nikolaj is just difficult, stubborn & at times just plain stupid which was a bit of an oxymoron considering he was a celebrated engineer in Ukraine. Testostorone, 'nuff said! This story is pretty sad in a lot of ways as we learn about old family struggles through the war & the general chaos that comes after it. Old family grudges came into play too (I actually wondered if my sister sees me like Nadia sees Vera at times. I'm sure she doesn't lol) The only real problem I had with the book though is the blurb on the back (& a couple of quotes) touted this as being 'extremely hilarious' which went right over my head as I don't see anything funny about elder abuse or family grudges & arguments. There were a couple of funny moments at the end but the rest of it, well.... I dunno. *side note* Dad, if Mum pops her clogs first & I catch you doing naked yoga, that's it buddy. You're on you're own lol! Anyway, this book probably isn't for everyone but I think it warrants a re-read at some stage when I've worked out a bit more of the history of Ukraine & those exceedingly confusing Russian patronymics! leah152 | Sep 29, 2022 |
 This is an odd one. Two years after the death of her mother, Nadezhda Lewis’s father, Nikolai Mayevskyj, a British resident and 1945 refugee from Ukraine, takes up with Valentina, a much more recent - and much younger - Ukrainian with a young son. The book recounts the unfolding of this relationship, through marriage and subsequent divorce proceedings and the reconciliation it brings about between Nadezhda and her older sister, Vera, who had become estranged following shenanigans involving their mother’s will. Nikolai is also writing the eponymous “Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian” extracts from which are doled out throughout the book. This is all treated in a knockabout style and the characters are well delineated. In contrast to the humorous aspects there is also Mayevskyj family backstory from Ukraine which is much more sombre. Nikolai and his wife lived through Stalin’s farm collectivisations (and famines) of the 1920s and 30s plus the German invasion of World War 2. The main thrust of the novel, though, is really about Nadezhda’s lack of intimate knowledge of this past and Vera’s insistence that things belong there, not to be dredged up. Some infelicities: the marriage takes place in a Catholic church even though Valentina is divorced (but the priest may not know) and Peterborough (United) are playing at home but appear on the big screen on a pub TV. This latter is unlikely I would think - even if they did reach the Championship. Lewycka makes great play of the traumatic past of the Majevskyj family but to my mind there was a whiff of “something nasty in the woodshed” about her treatment of it. A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian is entertaining but ultimately strives for more than it delivers. The younger sister, Nadezhda, reminisces about Ukraine and ponders the country's history. She dwells on well-known tragic events: the famine, Nazi occupation, Stalin's purges, Babi Yar. The hard realism of these images is in stark contrast with the grotesque main plot. Reading this novel gave me the impression that I had read a school textbook on Ukrainian history with one eye on an episode of Coronation Street. More than just a jovial farce about assimilation, A Short History Of Tractors in Ukrainian is spliced with family anecdotes and memories of the motherland. Nadezhda remembers her mother's salty vegetable soup and her father's prize-winning eulogy to a hydro-electric power station. More significantly, elder sister Vera comes clean about the family's wartime past, including time spent in a German labour camp. Despite Lewycka's robust writing, the will-she-won't-she-stay element of Valentina's story is hard to sustain. The family ends up in court, but the outcome is predictable. Predictable and sometimes repetitive hilarity ensues. But then Lewycka's comic narrative changes tone. 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. "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. Appartiene alle Collane EditorialiLa Campana (271) La Campana Tocs (57) La Campana Tocs (57) dtv premium (24557) Penguin Celebrations (32) Premi e riconoscimentiElenchi di rilievo
With this wise, tender, and deeply funny novel, Marina Lewycka takes her place alongside Zadie Smith and Monica Ali as a writer who can capture the unchanging verities of family. When an elderly and newly widowed Ukrainian immigrant announces his intention to remarry, his daughters must set aside their longtime feud to thwart him. For their father's intended is a voluptuous old-country gold digger with a proclivity for green satin underwear and an appetite for the good life of the West. As the hostilities mount and family secrets spill out, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian combines sex, bitchiness, wit, and genuine warmth in its celebration of the pleasure of growing old disgracefully. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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 Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)813Literature English (North America) American fictionClassificazione LCVotoMedia: (3.39)
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