Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 One of the best books I've read this year August 26, 2008
I enjoyed 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian', but this was way better. Parts of it made me laugh out loud, and others had me on the verge of tears. To achieve that and to contain enough truths [some of them very uncomfortable] to make the reader think as well takes a very talented writer.
Andriy's attempt to track down 'Vagvaga Riskegipd' was a stroke of pure genius. Despite being a Russian-speaker, I was halfway through the book before it dawned on me why an English girl would have such a daft name!
Absolutely brilliant, and I recommend it without reservation.
Funny,dark, but very good....ENJOY! August 16, 2008
If this is modern England told through the eyes of an Eastern european immigrant, we are in far more trouble than we realise. In fact I think this story is far closer to reality than many of us leading comfortable English lives would ever like to imagine. Yet for all those dark thoughts, this book is funny, well told, beautifully characterised, superbly observed, and truly a lovely story. Her first book "tractors" was a wonderful story, "caravans" is every bit as good, if not better. Enjoy! I did!
 stay off the strawberries in future August 11, 2008
Two Caravans is the tricky follow-up title to a first hit - how did she get on?
Well it's a fairly hair-raising read, I think. It's about a group of foreign strawberry pickers who've been trafficked to a really disgusting farm somewhere in Kent where they are being completely exploited by being charged loads for the rental of the two caravans where they live and for the lousy food the farmer supplies.
Things get even worse when the horrible lechy head trafficker decides he fancies Irina, the prettiest young Ukrainian. She flees him and his gun in the night, getting lost somewhere in the middle of huge fields in a genuinely tense passage.
But it's also got a kind of comic road trip theme, as the other pickers set off in the caravan to try to change their destiny in the UK back to what they'd hoped it might be before arriving. This sometimes turns out badly - they get fleeced at more than one point - and sometimes pretty well.
There are many things I could say about this book, but here's just two: 1) I've never read a book about the lives of people working such low-wage jobs before (maybe just articles in the Guardian) and it was eye-opening and good. 2) I'm never eating an English supermarket strawberry again.
 Could have been great :( August 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book could have been great.I was completely wowed until about half way through when, as other reviewers have mentioned, most of the main characters disappear. At this point the story becomes a overly drawn-out love story between two characters. I was left feeling that Lewycka had two novels to write and tried to squash them unsuccessfully into one. The first was the better novel, a study of immigrant life in the UK. There are some really fascinating and humorous parts to this novel - the views of the immigrants on their new surroundings, their impressions of each other, the exploitation of workers etc. and the part about chicken farming will stay with me forever. The second novel was about the meetings of old and new Ukraine in the characters of Irena and Andriy. Also potentially very interesting, but perhaps not a funny read. I feel very disappointed for Lewycka. She has a lovely, engaging writing style and has some very interesting ideas, but this novel just ends up an incoherent jumble of ideas. Don't even start me on the not-very-scary, may-turn-up-anywhere gangster baddie!!!
Beauty in simplicity July 18, 2008
I find this book a typical example of how simple can be rich and poetic, without being pretentious and pathetic.
I enjoy the characters and how honest about themselves they are, and when it comes to nature descriptions, I can't remember feeling as if the leaves are touching my skin in any book I've ever read except for this one.
Also, helps you become a firm vegetarian!
Beautiful style, too.
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