Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1632 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-02
• Released on: 2006-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
'Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamourous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.' Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must put aside a lifetime of feuding to save their emigre engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth. But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget...

From the Inside Flap
"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a
glamorous blonde Ukranian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was
thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade,
churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface sludge of sloughed-off
memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."

From the Back Cover
Praise for A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRAINIAN: 'Outstanding' Daily Mail

'Extremely funny' The Times

'Nothing short of amazing' Daily Express

Customer Reviews

Almost very good indeed
I liked this-with reservations. The writing is light, sprightly, with real humour. The characters are interesting. The relationship between the two sisters is beautifully portrayed and developed and the idiosyncrasies of the father are both touching and amusing. I didn't feel that the character of Valentina was quite as well developed as it could have been, although her abusive tirades in broken english had me in stitches. For me, the best feature of the story was the way it juxtaposed the two types of 'immigrant': the refugee from horror and atrocity and the 'modern' aspirant to a western lifestyle. This made me think and inspired me to learn more about the history of the Ukraine. My main negative comment is that I felt the ending was a bit of a let down, and didn't really live up to what had been set up before: I felt it was a little rushed and somewhat incongruous, certainly not satisfying my feeling that something hilarious/touching or fundamental was going to happen. It rather fizzled out.
That said, still a very enjoyable read and an insight into a community and a history that I knew nothing of previously.

(Not big or clever)
I really wanted to like this book (yeah, right). It had been recommended to me (like I need recommendations from anyone) so I was sure I'd enjoy it (oh?). Unfortunately (trying to sound disappointed), I didn't get through it because it wasn't really my cup of tea (trying not to say outright that it was awful). I don't give up on many books (only rubbish ones) but I found the style challenging (so incredibly annoying) and I thought the humour (what humour????) was not all that amusing (like pulling teeth). Maybe it was because I'd just come off the back of reading 'A Prayer For Owen Meany' (now that's a book!) and my expectations were maybe a little high (not that they'd have to be high to be disappointed by this garbage). Anyway, I'm sure that there's a market for this sort of thing (Lord above help us!) and that many people will derive some pleasure from reading it (Lord above help them!). Oh, and that thing she does with parentheses (brackets to you and me) is a little bit distracting (AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!). Enjoy!

Trashy
Trashy, badly written, unexplored 1D characters, Overhyped.

As well crafted as this review.