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Indlæser... A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (original 2005; udgave 2006)af Marina Lewycka
Work InformationEn kort gennemgang af traktorens historie på ukrainsk af Marina Lewycka (Author) (2005)
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Meget, meget grotesk og morsom beretning om den 84-årige Nikolajs ægteskab med 36-årige Valentina hjemmefra Ukraine, fortalt af Nikolajs datter Nadja, som sammen med sin ti år ældre søster Vera er voldsomt bekymrede for faderen - med god grund... Enormt underholdende, og sproget er guld værd! Fra første sides første afsnit citeres: 'Som en fnugget lyserød granat kom hun ind i vores liv som en eksplosion, oppiskede de mudrede vande og bragte et sjap af hengemte minder op til overfladen og gav familiens lig i lasten et spark i røven'.
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. Tilhører ForlagsserienLa Campana (271) La Campana Tocs (57) La Campana Tocs (57) dtv premium (24557) Penguin Celebrations (32) HæderspriserNotable Lists
Nadezjda (Nadja) og hendes storesøster Vera er ikke på talefod, men da deres 84-årige far falder for en 36-årig ukrainsk blondine med gevaldige bryster og insisterer på at gifte sig, må de samarbejde for at afværge katastrofen. No library descriptions found. |
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Da historien tager sin begyndelse, er fortælleren Nadja i åben konflikt med søsteren Vera. De har ikke talt sammen siden moderens død, hvor det ifølge Nadja lykkedes Vera at tiltuske sig mere af arven, end hun var berettiget til.
Nu bliver de imidlertid nødt til at samarbejde, for deres far Nikolaj har besluttet sig for at blive gift med den meget yngre Valentina. Hun prøver ihærdigt at undslippe det postkommunistiske Ukraine for at skabe en bedre fremtid for sin søn, og vejen går altså over et ægteskab, der kan sikre hende permanent opholdstilladelse. Søstrene ser hende selvfølgelig som en golddigger, og når man læser, hvor nedladende og følelseskoldt hun behandler faderen, er det ikke helt ved siden af. At Valentina kun kan varme posemad og kaster sig i armene på først den ene, så den anden mand, gør ikke billedet mere sympatisk.
Mens døtrene hurtigt bliver stålsatte på at få smidt Valentina ud, så er faderen mere i tvivl. Han er begejstret for Valentinas bryster, men først og fremmest er han ensom, og fordi Valentinas (eks)mand er rektor på en polyteknisk skole hjemme i Ukraine, er han villig til at strække sig langt. Nikolaj er stadig i dyb sorg over tabet af moderen, og det mærkværdige forhold til Valentina bliver sammen med realiseringen af en længe næret drøm om at skrive traktorens historie en vej tilbage til livet.
Til gengæld bliver den fælles fjende en anledning til forsoning mellem Nadja og Vera, og lillesøsteren får endelig klarhed over nogle af de ting, der foregik under Stalin og under den nazistiske besættelse. Det er ikke en heltefortælling, men en deprimerende almindelig historie om en familieskæbne, der blev smadret af først den ene og så den anden totalitære magt. Det var bare heldigt, at det lykkedes at undslippe til vesten, da krigen endelig var slut.
Der er altså masser af gods i bogen. Årene i Ukraine ligger som en skygge hen over livet i England, søstrenes anspændte forhold er i selv interessant, og Valentinas ambitioner er såre menneskelige. Det lykkes bare ikke rigtigt at forløse historierne, fordi romanen vil det hele på én gang – den sidste del flirter oven i købet med feel-good folkekomedie. ( )