A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - discussion thread
Postby Diana » Sun May 20, 2007 9:30 pm
So, I just finished reading Tractors... It went by pretty quickly. Spoilers follow, so read at your own risk from now on. XD
What'd you all think of it? I enjoyed it, though I didn't really start liking it a lot until the last 75 pages or so, when Valentina had left, and they were working on the divorce and all. At the beginning, I thought the plot seemed a bit dull - too family-drama-ish and squabbly for my tastes, and none of the characters really appealed to me.
However, I did enjoy it at the end... It was nice to see everything resolved, and I liked how Valentina kind of grew on me as the book went on - as did the father; at first he just frustrated me but that changed.
I loved the bit about the Rolls Royce, when Dubov helped fix it. I think Dubov might be my favorite character in the book, actually... He's so energetic and amusing, and clearly quite competent with machinery and such. I also liked Vera and her assertiveness; Nadia struck me as kind of whiny sometimes - the fact that she acknowledged that she was being whiny didn't really make me have any more sympathy for her.
Ludmilla was also an interesting character; even though she was dead for the whole book, her presence was definitely there. I liked all of the descriptions of her garden and the family history involving her; the mixture of nostalgia and practicality was really nice.
On the whole, I wouldn't rate it as one of my favorite books - but it's a good way to spend some time if you've got a few hours to kill, and I'm glad I read it.
(Oh, and am I the only one who didn't understand the title at first? I thought it was a grammatical mistake or something until I realized that "in Ukrainian" meant that it was written in Ukrainian... *headdesk* XD)
Anyway, other thoughts?