A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - where is the comedy?

[MagpiePi]

I got about half way through this book and had to abandon it as I found it too disturbing - an old man being physically and financially abused and controlled.

The reviews on the cover say things like ‘delightful, funny, touching’, hugely enjoyable…’, ‘…uproariously funny, a comic feast.’

I suppose the character of Valentina could be viewed as comical but I couldn’t find anything else even vaguely amusing.

Have I completely missed the point or has this book, published in 2005, just aged badly?

Sometimes I wonder if reviewers have read the book. I read a book set during WW1 that featured all kinds of hardships and violence. It was called “delightful” in one review on the cover 😂

I’ve actually never read it but I remember reading somewhere that Marina Lewyka thought that she was writing a hard-hitting tragic novel about family tensions and exploitation, but her agent and editor saw it as a black comedy, and it was marketed, reviewed and (generally) received that way. It’s often used as a parable to creative writing students that what you think you’re writing is not always what you’re actually writing.

I read it and liked it a lot. Definitely very dark/black humour. I think it has to be read as a bit of a caricature so the treatment of the old guy isn’t too disturbing. But the reality is he could have got out, at least in The early stages, but wilfully chose not to.

And there’s a typical ‘unreliable narrator’ , whose blindness to themselves can also lead to dry humour

My mum and I both read this not long after it came out and we thought the same thing. I can't remember anything about the plot now but I don't remember finding it funny at all!

Yes I thought the same when I read it OP. Thoroughly depressing.

I think the humour is meant to come from the juxtaposition of the left leaning narrator with her right wing, materialistic sister. But agree, the book is actually pretty dark.

Not just me then!

I remember reading it years ago and thoughts the same thing. Gave up about half way, it was really dull.

I hate it when there's all these positive quotes on the cover saying how good a book is, then, it just isn't. 😠

I remember there was a huge amount of hype around it when it first came out.

And I can’t think of any books that have made me laugh out loud, an internal chuckle maybe, but no more than that. Maybe I’m just a miserable cow?! 😁