Reading 1001 discussion

Lead Amanda.

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hi Everyone,

Here is an author bio and book summary to start us off (From Penguin Random House):

Summary:

“Marriage,” writes Marina Lewycka, “is never just about people falling in love, it is about families.” Lewycka’s debut novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, begins as narrator Nadia’s widowed father Nikolai announces his intention to marry a glamorous divorcee fifty years younger than he. His two feuding daughters realize they must unite to free their father from the clutches of Valentina, a Ukrainian bombshell and “boil-in-the-bag cook” with “superior” breasts and a “genius” son, whose demands on the elderly man only begin at marriage. Family secrets are revealed, and the tragic history of Ukraine is revisited in this moving, informative, and laugh-out-loud funny family drama.

Nadia is a sociologist, while her sister Vera is more of a socialite, and they haven’t spoken to each other since their mother died. Now, brought together by their father’s apparent second adolescence, they conspire to oust the newcomer and preserve the sanctity of their mother’s home and garden. Along the way the two sisters confront differences that shadowed them have throughout their childhoods and Nadia learns for the first time of the wartime events that contributed to the very different worldviews she and her sister hold, finally realizing the privilege she has enjoyed as her parents’ “precious peacetime baby.”

Meanwhile, fired up by passion, Nikolai is writing his own eccentric contribution to human knowledge, a history of tractors, through which Lewycka offers us insight into the social and political events that shaped the last century: war, peace, repression, famine, ecological disaster—the tractor played its part. Lewycka reminds us of the difficult choices that immigrants must make between what to remember and what to forget about their pasts.

Nadia’s vibrant voice, knowing, self-deprecating and witty, acts as both guide and interpreter for her complicated and sometimes outrageous family. In the end, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is her story, as she learns to redefine her role in a new family, one that must reconcile the loss of her mother with the new hopes and desires of her compromised father. Though all the characters at times yield to their worst impulses, their charm is that they struggle through as we all do: eager and resentful, yearning and unyielding, loving and infuriated in equal measure. Nadia in particular comes to terms with a history both personal and global, in a brilliant first novel that bears witness to the human struggle for dignity even as undertaken by the most undignified of people.



ABOUT MARINA LEWYCKA
Marina Lewycka was born of Ukrainian parents in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany, at the end of the war, and grew up in England. She teaches at Sheffield Hallam University. She is married, with a grown-up daughter, and lives in Sheffield.

Questions (also from Penguin Random house):

1. What do you think Valentina’s real motives are? Does she really want the best possible life for her son, is she simply after money, or does she seek love and contentment for herself? Go back to some scenes in the novel where she explains what she wants and defends her own actions against the accusations of Nadia and her sister. Whom do you believe? Do you feel sympathy for Valentina?

2. Nadia’s father becomes embroiled with Valentina for a variety of reasons, including his loneliness, romanticism, and generosity. Is her considerable—and oft-advertised—sex appeal her primary attraction, or do you think it might be something else? What do you learn about his attitudes towards life and people from his book on tractors?

3. Consider all of the ways in which sisters Vera and Nadia are different. How do they define themselves and each other? What influence does their childhood, and their difference in age, have on their personalities and current relationship with each other? What role does the family’s wartime experience play? What does Nadia mean when she says that she and her sister quarrel over “the inheritance of character, of nature”?

4. Stanislaw is one of the more complex characters, in part because he is not in control of his own destiny but is instead subject to the whims of his mother and other adults. Though he is no innocent, he is in some ways a victim. Return to some sections of the book that deal with Stanislaw. Try to imagine the story from his point of view. Who would you trust in his situation? What would you hope for?

5. Do you think it’s fair of Nadia and Vera to try to have Valentina deported? What would her life be like back in Ukraine? What about Stanislaw’s future? Consider what both she and Nikolai say about life back in their homeland, both in the past and present. Do you think Valentina’s aspirations for a life in England are similar to those of other immigrants? How does Nadia struggle with the dissonance between being an immigrant herself and trying to deport an aspiring one?

6. How does Nadia’s vocation as a sociologist influence her approach to her family and to Valentina? Does it help her see the situation more clearly than others? Consider some of the times in which she seems to analyze circumstances more as a professional and others in which she responds less rationally. What does this suggest about the benefits and limitations of our attempts at logical explanation, particularly as regards our families?

7. What did you think of the book, and do you think it deserves its place on the list?

Hi Folks: sorry this thread has been pretty empty, I've been having a stacked month. But, just finished this one today and will be posting soon.

Just curious: who else either has been reading/is planning to read this one?

I just finished reading it Amanda.

1. What do you think Valentina’s real motives are? Does she really want the best possible life for her son, is she simply after money, or does she seek love and contentment for herself? Go back to some scenes in the novel where she explains what she wants and defends her own actions against the accusations of Nadia and her sister. Whom do you believe? Do you feel sympathy for Valentina?

In general, the author makes Valentina not very likable but nevertheless a sympathetic character. I believed that she wanted the best for her son in that the opportunities for him in the west appeared to be better than in the corrupt, free for all early capitalism of the Ukraine. She is also after money, but it is money to give her what she considers her "best life", with the things that she wants and a kind of security which someone who grew up relatively well off in the Ukraine would only find in money. The fact that Nikolai does not provide financially as Valentina intended him to, is a betrayal to her rather than simply a weakness on his part.

2. Nadia’s father becomes embroiled with Valentina for a variety of reasons, including his loneliness, romanticism, and generosity. Is her considerable—and oft-advertised—sex appeal her primary attraction, or do you think it might be something else? What do you learn about his attitudes towards life and people from his book on tractors?

Nadia's father is full of forgiveness for Valentina's odd judgements and extreme emotions. He attributes this to the Russian "character" and to the unfortunate circumstances she has had to endure in the Ukraine rather than any true fault of her own. He is clearly in need of being a savior to a Ukrainian, to have some purpose in his life and to simply have some drama and love in his life. The fact that she comes with large breasts also helps because it gives him a sense of being special in that he has been able to help this large sexual being. In this way, Valentina reminds me a bit of the Rolls Royce, it is something that other men lust after even if it is sitting unmoving on the front lawn.

3. Consider all of the ways in which sisters Vera and Nadia are different. How do they define themselves and each other? What influence does their childhood, and their difference in age, have on their personalities and current relationship with each other? What role does the family’s wartime experience play? What does Nadia mean when she says that she and her sister quarrel over “the inheritance of character, of nature”?

Nadia learns an interesting lesson about stories as she reconnects with her sister. She has heard many of the family stories that shaped Vera's early life but she heard it without all the key pieces that would have illuminated the differences that Vera experienced growing up in the chaos at the end of WWII, while Nadia grew up in peacetime England. Nadia was described by her father as a tyrant as a child; demanding and self assured. Vera was described as extremely shy and quiet but they exchange roles as Vera grasps for a English life with financial security.

4. Stanislaw is one of the more complex characters, in part because he is not in control of his own destiny but is instead subject to the whims of his mother and other adults. Though he is no innocent, he is in some ways a victim. Return to some sections of the book that deal with Stanislaw. Try to imagine the story from his point of view. Who would you trust in his situation? What would you hope for?

Stanislaw is caught between his mother's desires and his need to support her in those desires and his own sense that he would be better off with his father in the Ukraine. He is totally aware of his mother's transgressions and it appears to make him uncomfortable while at the same time he continues to support her. I think he would hope for something along the line of what ultimately happened; that his father will save him.

5. Do you think it’s fair of Nadia and Vera to try to have Valentina deported? What would her life be like back in Ukraine? What about Stanislaw’s future? Consider what both she and Nikolai say about life back in their homeland, both in the past and present. Do you think Valentina’s aspirations for a life in England are similar to those of other immigrants? How does Nadia struggle with the dissonance between being an immigrant herself and trying to deport an aspiring one?

The interesting thing about this book is that we are not actually given much of a current view into the Ukraine and what would happen to Valentina if she returned. We know about her husband, we know that she grew up somewhat well off and we know that she is not educated with a skill that would give her a secure place back there, but we don't actually know much more than that. There are some implications that she was involved with gangsters or corrupt people but that may only be an assumption on the part of the Ukrainian community about all "tarts".
I did think it was too extreme for the sisters to try and have Valentina deported but the author does a good job of making the threat to their father something that they must act on and they couldn't come up with a way to get her out of his life without also attempting to get her out of the country. It isn't clear to the reader if there may have been other options, as we are only given the sister's view.

6. How does Nadia’s vocation as a sociologist influence her approach to her family and to Valentina? Does it help her see the situation more clearly than others? Consider some of the times in which she seems to analyze circumstances more as a professional and others in which she responds less rationally. What does this suggest about the benefits and limitations of our attempts at logical explanation, particularly as regards our families?

This question highlights the beauty of the book. The reader has a sense that Nadia is applying her sociology skills when in fact she is just using her sociology skills to prop up her emotional ones. She and Vera both are acting out of fear for their father but also fear for their own vision of their father and mother. Although her profession gives her insights into other people's behavior through economic and social lenses, she ultimately comes to see that she can not dismiss all the emotional foundations that underpin people's individual behavior.

7. What did you think of the book, and do you think it deserves its place on the list?

I suspect the book is on the list because of the through line regarding the nature of storytelling. Families tell their stories in such a way that they can be passed on without all the raw emotions and mixed judgements that actually happen in real life. However, there is always more than one way to tell a story and the author gives us a number of examples where the father's versions are very different than what the mother or sister voiced. There are also whole sections of stories that simply should not be passed on as that will cause them to continue to live, and somethings are best forgotten. Then there is the actual history of tractors which is a slightly more scientific look at the same story of that time and lastly there is Nadia's own story in which she comes to understand how she herself has corrupted her family's story for her own benefit and how she needs to widen her view of both her family and the world with a touch more tolerance.
The book doesn't appear to stand along side most of the other books I have read on the list in regards literature but nevertheless I enjoyed it.

Gail wrote: "I just finished reading it Amanda.

1. What do you think Valentina’s real motives are? Does she really want the best possible life for her son, is she simply after money, or does she seek love and ..."

Awesome: enjoyed reading your answers, Gail.
1. I also agree that Valentina’s motivation seems to be money but how that relates to her perception of getting a better life for her son is also relevant. Not that I think her money motives were purely saintly or selfless either. She seems to have a notion of ‘gold-digging’ as a perfectly reasonable goal with no moral valence the way many people would view something like career advancement. I guess this does make some sense in light of being from a newly capitalist country that is dealing in a lot of preliminary corruption. I think it’s these factors that do make her sympathetic to a certain degree even when from the sisters’ perspective it is fully justified that they find her to be morally bankrupt and terrible.

2. I interpreted this as a combo of loneliness’ and ah…yeah horny-ness. Even though a lot of the book is kind of ridiculous I feel like it mostly worked in context- however I did find his choice to marry and behaviour towards Valentina in general to be some of the less convincing parts of the book to the degree that it even gets lampshaded like “oh dad is usually a better judge and not such a schmuck” and sure people can have blindspots, but I never fully felt like the motivations or believability in this case 100% materialized. But yes, I agree that his romanticized view of Ukraine and wanting to be a Ukrainian saviour comes strongly into it- which we get a large sense of from the book.

3. This part of the book I did enjoy: you really see both of their values and insecurities based on how they feel superior to the other: Vera as feeling more materially and financially superior, and Nadia feeling more morally and intellectually superior. I loved their dynamic and they are both deeply flawed, but admittedly I’m more of a Nadia than a Vera so I found myself getting so annoyed at the catty things she says about social justice and her sister the ‘social worker’. Mission accomplished. The differences in age/relation to the war do bring up the difference in their values: Vera is more of a Valentina than she would admit and links material wealth to survivalism, whereas, even though you could argue Nadia is more morally correct (in that compassion based societies are more successful and achievable if people invest in them) there is still a ‘privilege’ to her positions on working for others and focus on charity.


4. Totally agree with Gail’s answer here. There seems to be a relief when his father returns, and it was likely a huge conflict for him to go against his mother when in her perception he was her only real ally.

5. Yeah I also think it seems extreme but contextually we aren’t given other viable solutions. I don’t really know about these things, but it makes sense an annulment would result in deportation- but would divorce necessarily? Honestly I think Valentina’s aspirations are the same as many immigrants- a comfortable and prosperous life and opportunity for her child. I think the only real key difference is the average immigrant believes this will come from their own labour when she insists it will come from others. I think this is a key factor that pushes the sisters and in many ways the reader from the headspace of ‘good immigrant who deserves a chance’ to the stereotypical ‘freeloader coming here to steal resources from the citizens’. I did think the book does a good job at making Nadia (the social justice warrior) and by extension the reader, uncomfortable with drawing that line.


6. Totally agree with your answer as well Gail. It reminds me of something that happened to a colleague of mine where they found themselves disgusted and angry at someone in their family for committing a pretty substantial transgression against someone else they cared about. They said “well we’re trained in psychology and that family member clearly did this a part of a pathology and I know that, so why am I still angry and judging?”, but it seemed clear that it was because they cared about the victim of those transgressions. You don’t stop having an emotional response to anything affecting your family and emotional life just because you are capable of understanding it academically. And yes, that does include people using that understanding to try to elevate their emotional responses into ‘purely rational’ ones.

7. I liked this book overall and gave it 4 stars. There were some really funny bits – my immature side found the erectile dysfunction and “oral sex based pregnancy” bits very amusing. It also touched on the complexity of the immigrant experience and who ‘deserves’ a free or mostly free ride.

I read this book a while ago, but I was reminded of it this year watching all the tractor-related stuff with the war in Ukraine. I hadn't thought much about the special place of tractors in Ukrainian culture, which this book mentions plenty, till I saw how quickly they became such a huge thing this year.