Two Caravans

by Marina Lewycka

Also published as Strawberry Fields.

The bestselling author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is back with an "effervescent comedy" (The New Yorker)

The follow up to her hugely popular first novel presents a Canterbury Tales inspired picaresque that is also a biting satire of economic exploitation. When a ragtag international crew of migrant workers is forced to flee the strawberry fields they have been working in, they set off across England looking for employment. Displaying the same sense of compassion, social outrage, and gift for hilarity that she showed in A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka chronicles their bumpy road trip with a tender affection for her downtrodden characters and their search for a taste of the good life.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Humor, British Literature, Novels, Romance, Ukraine

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Marina Lewycka was a British novelist of Ukrainian origin.

Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany after World War II. Her family then moved to England. She was educated at Keele University and worked as a lecturer in media studies at Sheffield Hallam University.

In addition to her fiction, Lewycka has written a number of books giving practical advice for carers of elderly people, published by the charity Age Concern.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Lewycka is incredible - she manages to write a novel about illegal immigrants, prostitution, exploitation, battery farming chickens... and make it funny without ever diminishing the horror - in fact it's because it's fun that we don't turn away or stop reading because it's unbearable.

I thought the characters were wonderful and varied and the scenes more likely to win people over than a mass of outraged journalism or cold statistics. And the characters just go on living - the humour doesn't allow us to see them as victims even though we can feel sorry for them.
Brilliant!

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed White Teeth.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a respectable follow-up from her first book, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. I don't know why I'd describe it as light, when it involves prostitution, minimum wage, exploitation of 'unskilled' workers, not to mention the battery chicken farm episode which has put me off eating poultry for at least the next week. The East European accents may grate after a while, and some of the charming illegal immigrant workers are bordering on stereotypes, as are the pantomime baddies. But there are lots of astute points in there about immigration, Western consumerism, relationships, etc. etc. Not to mention an accurate insight into a dog's mind - ahh, poor dog - that was one of the sad bits. Perhaps the summer strawberry picking was a bit unrealistic too - she never mentions rain, it's all a bit Famous Five-like only on a sliced white bread diet. Oh, and Marta's inventive cooking on a limited budget had my mouth watering. Nice light easy read but some food for thought in there too.

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this soapy novel about migrant workers in England. But don't take that as a recommendation, as this book would irritate quite a few of my GR friends. (Average friend rating is currently 2.25, plus two fairly positive reviews without star ratings. Like this one. Hmm... I enjoyed it 4-stars much but would probably, in a few months, find myself embarrassed about the rating and remove or downgrade it, so I'm just not adding one in the first place. Edit: Nope, it's the end of November now, and I still want to give it 4 stars because I enjoyed it a lot.)

I started Two Caravans a couple of days before the Booker International shadowing began. I was desperate to read something with minimal pressure, that I expected to enjoy, which no-one I knew would consider 'important' - and I wanted to see if I could read without making highlights and notes, because I was starting to do my own head in with my inability to go even one Kindle-screen's worth without doing both. I only read a little before the longlist was announced, and now Two Caravans has bookended the prize [sorry], as I picked it up again on the day of the announcement, and finished it the day after.

I'm treating it as popular fiction, though I think technically it would fall into the 'book club fiction' marketing category: it has multiple viewpoint switches and occasional paragraphs narrated from the point of view of a dog, in all caps with no punctuation, which publicity people would probably call literary. It ticked a lot of boxes for what I would like from popular fiction, things which are quite difficult to find in practice: a strong focus on average or low-paid work with more or less realistic depictions of jobs and people; humour and adventure but with an awareness of the grittier side of life; not primarily about standard genre topics like romance, crime etc, but these are okay as subplots.

Lewycka clearly did some good research. It was obvious she'd been to the book's main locations across England, and it was particularly impressive how closely the account of the work on chicken farms matched up to a case that was recently prosecuted. (More background here.) She also captured details like how much chicken sheds stink if you are unused to them, and how the work in animal slaughter and processing is often monstrous, and how people psychologically modify around it, some becoming monstrous themselves but some also not. Likewise, having once lived with someone doing kitchen porter work, that job rang true too.

One of the main problems with the book is that some of the wordforms of characters speaking English as a second language - especially when they are writing - sound unlikely and exaggerated, and as if they are written to demonstrate the differences between characters from various countries. (But then having characters with written voices that sounded similar could also be a problem.) Towards the end of the book this decreases in the Ukrainian characters, and the errors sound increasingly realistic, mostly just missed articles (Slavic languages don't have articles) and a few words not known - though the apparently unlikely errors are still present a bit in the letters written by Malawian Emmanuel. I don't think Lewycka intends to mock the characters, and as she seems to have some experience in frontline public services (she has also written several non-fiction manuals for carers), I think she is inspired by types of people encountered there, some of whom present for help because they don't have very good bullshit-detection abilities on their own. But these days a critically inclined reader could say she is generalising migrant workers as either naive or exploitative. The book was first published in 2007, when British publishing and media took multiculturalism for granted, social media barely existed, the recession had not yet hit, and there was a liberal assumption that being anti-immigration was a fringe opinion that would continue to decrease. Fictional characters of East European migrant workers holding opinions that were sexist, or stereotypical of BAME people, could read as simply realistic, and these characters as good guys (male and female) because there wasn't the level of overt prejudice against either Eastern Europeans or PoC that is now visible via social media and party politics, and there hadn't been much public conversation about the problems of replicating stereotyping via fictional characters who practise it themselves. The way the 'Chinese girls' were portrayed through the eyes of the Ukrainian characters would be considered off, but their anonymity to the Ukrainians, and the lack of staying in touch - albeit not that much giggling - seemed completely plausible based on my own experience on a course (several years before this book was published) which had a contingent of Chinese international students who didn't speak much English and who stuck together. (These days I think more narrative from the Chinese girls' viewpoint, especially as a conclusion, would be expected from the novel.) I tend to think of stereotyping as a near-inevitable part of popular fiction outside SFF - i.e. it's an unusual and pleasant surprise if it's *not* there - but there is plenty about this book that I can't imagine being published by a UK literary-adjacent imprint, as an English-language original, in 2019.

A character from South Yorks attributes a lot of proverbs and opinions to "Jimmy Binbag", which is never really explained. I knew someone from the same area who was always attributing similar stuff facetiously to a celebrity Jimmy. I always assumed it was a personal schtick... But is this some local thing? Almost impossible to Google.

Weird editing decision: I'm sure Lewycka knows about the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, so I can only presume it was an editor who changed it to the Black Madonna of Kraków, for the sake of a place British readers would have heard of, or something like that. (A particularly religious Polish worker puts up a picture of her.)

Enjoyed this more than A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. (One of my least-favourite episodes in Two Caravans was when one of the characters from Tractors cropped up.) 'Motley cast of characters thrown together for a road trip' is usually a winning trope for me and so it was here.

Very useful review here from Alta, who explains that Lewycka writes in the tradition of Russian satirists Ilf & Petrov (who have been recommended to me before but whom I've not yet got round to reading. Their most famous book in English, to the extent they have one, is The Golden Calf.)

(Read & reviewed May 2019.)

[hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

"from Kiev to Kent in 42 hours" ! 😉

it took me a little while to get into this novel, but I enjoyed it more as it continued... and I very much liked it overall 🙂
tho I still had a few questions at times 🤔

🌸🌿🌱🍓🍓🌿🌱🌸

there's a danger of reading the novel on a surface level, and it acting to reinforce stereotypes and prejudices... but read with an awareness of these, I think the novel deliberately uses and highlights these stereotypes and prejudices for what they are.

within the above, the novel plays with the idea of coming to UK to earn lots of money - that people are sold this story, both to recruit workers for often an indentured servitude, and to prejudice local residents against migrant workers.

I also appreciated that while being so very flippant alot of the time, this was to some extent balanced by the use of narrator interludes, with imparted facts, statistics, comments about exploitation, etc.

🌸🌿🌱🍓🍓🌿🌱🌸

I enjoyed the settings, and the cast of characters 🙂 tho as the story progressed it increasingly became clear that there were two characters in particular holding and leading the story. but these were for alot of the time tucked within a host of well developed supporting characters, whose substories peeled off every now and then, gradually paring it down to the central pair 🙂

I'm not entirely sure why, but as I write about the novel, it feels to me like a play on some levels - possibly the characters, and possibly some dramatic structure and/or traditions 🤔

for me the novel felt in places that it was drawing on some stereotypes, and social/political archetypes - felt like it was referencing some stuff outside of my experience.
this didn't leave it inaccessible, just gave me the sense of a greater depth I could feel, but that I didn't fully understand and/or can't fully articulate.

it felt in large part kinda tragicomic, and often very tongue in cheek 😉

🌸🌿🌱🍓🍓🌿🌱🌸

I think the novel explored and played with stereotypes and caricatures from within several Eastern European cultures, including a variety from within Ukraine - socially, politically, education, class, age, gender.
while this was fun, I think it also served on some level to challenge/critique a Western European tendency to lump together diverse countries and cultures, and it's inherent prejudice towards the more Eastern countries of Europe and their diverse histories.

English characters (I can't remember now if there were other British characters, I guess the English ones stood out most) were used and stereotyped in similar ways, and I liked that they were more secondary, that the story was not from their perspective 🙂 the caricaturing there was equally, possibly even more, satisfying... especially the pretty dysfunctional relationships, including across different classes 😉😆

while initially abit disconcerting (especially the risk of greater racial stereotyping) the 'two Chinese girls' I think served a purpose, but were maybe abit underdeveloped in some ways too - perhaps the least well executed aspect of/characters within the novel? 🤔 they continued to be referred to as the 'two Chinese girls' throughout the novel, despite it being revealed that at least one of them was from Malaysia... and initially I was very uncomfortable with how they were repeatedly referred to as such, wrt the stereotyping, racialised aspects, and that everyone else had a name... but even then I could see the point the author was making, and that it became more humorous (in a kinda too much way) as it continued.
it seemed like they were there to point out a whole another layer of exploitation, sidelining, invisibility... but I think their storyline kinda drifted part way thru, and felt abit unfinished/unsatisfying. also perhaps they were the most passive of the characters/lacked the most agency? 🤔 I guess I feel like that taps into some greater stereotyping and prejudice around both racialised and gendered identities. I dunno 🤔🙃🤔
the narrator interlude does eventually name the two women, which is satisfying, and also works in a kinda slightly poignant eulogising way, after they've largely left the story - Song Ying and Su Lai Bi (spelled from ear, and maybe incorrect).

🌸🌿🌱🍓🍓🌿🌱🌸

while the novel spent alot of time in Southern England - Kent, Brighton iirc, London - there was also a kinda road trip North too 😃😁 I enjoyed the fantasy idea of Sheffield 😃😆 the characters ending up in Peterborough along the way 😆 and I was excited by the chapter that referenced Nine Ladies! 😃 (tho it felt slightly flawed cos I'm not sure Alice the old bus would make it up the hill to the site... 😉🤔 but, yeah, it's fiction 🙂).

I think some of this roaming around I enjoyed for its haplessness - chance and/or random possibilities and decisions leading the characters many places... unclear and unrealistic ideas and expectations of place... going with the flow. I generally enjoy stories (in all forms - books, film, etc) that use and explore this kinda haplessness, being 'at the mercy of the fates', of others, of circumstance... and how people react within this 🙂

another aspect of this novel I enjoyed was that kinda revelation and exploration of a world that is happening beneath the surface, beneath what many people see.
I think I especially enjoy this in novels, in part for the particular microcosm portrayed and explored by an author, and in part as someone who inhabits subcultures/minority cultures, having it kinda validated that there's alot more beneath the mainstream, and enjoying stories that forefront this.

🌸🌿🌱🍓🍓🌿🌱🌸

last but not least, it took me a little while, but I quite got into dog, and kinda loved him by the end of the novel 🐕🙂
tho it took me a while to realise he was an actual dog - the first couple of his appearances in the novel I thought he was one of the men embodying a particular aspect 😆

"is the dog a victim of global capitalism?" 😉

🌸🌿🌱🍓🍓🌿🌱🌸


accessed as a library audiobook, read by Sian Thomas

[Alta]

Not quite as good as the author's first novel, but still very engaging. Written in the tradition of Ilf's and Petrov's satirical novels (The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf). The reviewers who have criticized Marina Lewycka don't know HOW to read a novel: any novel needs to be read within the tradition(s)it comes from. When Lewycka introduces a lot of characters whom she later abandons, she follows the above tradition, whose goal is to depict a panoramic view of the society at a certain moment in history.

[Talya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story explores the experiences of a random group of Eastern European immigrant workers in the UK. It very cleverly captures the changes that have occurred in the UK over the last 5 years since Europe started expanding into the East. I also like the way the book is written in the voice of all of the characters involved (except for the dog which is just plain stupid). I was thoroughly confused by all of the comments that covered the book from the press about how it was "hilarious", "the funniest book" etc. I guess this was their marketing ploy but it isn't hilarious, in fact the situations the characters find themselves in would only be funny if it wasn't so true. The fact that the dedication at the front of the book is to the Morecambe bay cockle pickers says it all. The ending becomes absolutely ridiculous but given the content of most of the book, I was willing to let it go. Not a masterpiece by any means but definitely worth reading from a social standpoint.

[iva° · Rating 4 out of 5]

topla priča o beračima jagoda s raznih strana svijeta (ukrajina, poljska, malavi, kina) koji se nađu u engleskoj u potrazi i nadi za boljim životom, puni snova i očekivanja. zbog incidenta koji se dogodi, ovi pitoreskni likovi različitih kultura i mentaliteta napuštaju farmu jagoda i kreću dalje... putem se rasipaju, a u centru romana ostaju andrij i irina koji polako i oprezno, kroz karakteristično muško-ženski doživljaj različitih situacija, razvijaju svoju ljubavnu priču.

lako štivo, humoristično i na trenutke zabavno, a onda pada u životno crnilo koje nam lewycka servira kroz šalu, grotesku i satiru, tako da nas ne boli previše sve ono što se ružnoga u životu može dogoditi. kao da nam između redaka kaže: "nasmiješi se, pridigni se, život je samo vic".

[John Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book ticked a lot of boxes for me. I loved it.
It's not the easiest read owing to the mix of third-person and first-person points-of-view (one of the first person POVs is that of a dog - first-canine perhaps?).
But it's certainly worth sticking to it because it allows the reader to get inside a number of heads and find out what makes them tick and see the world through their eyes through the filter of their knowledge.
This books plumbs the depths and goes to some squallid places that can make us feel ashamed to be part of the human race.
But it also has some splendid comic moments.
To my mind, that's what makes a great writer - the ability to go from light to dark again and back to light again. There's no black, no white, just lots of shades of interesting grey.
I also like that this book was written to no formula that I know. It's original. A breath of fresh air.

[Mira Margitta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Na naslovnici piše "urnebesno duhovito."
A ne znam šta je tu duhovito kad nezaposleni ljudi krenu trbuhom za kruhom i završe na lošem mjestu.Minimalna dnevnica,očajan smještaj,nema ni higijenskog minimuma,a hrana je najjeftinija i mizerna.
Knjiga je zapravo tužna,realna i surova.
Ne očekujte ništa smiješno.

[Fionnuala]

Marina Lewycka likes to weave a variety of themes into her very funny stories, sometimes successfully, as in A Short History of Tractors in Ukranien, sometimes less so, as in We Are All Made of Glue but she succeeds wonderfully in this novel, Two Caravans. Here, she covers pretty much the same subjects as Rose Tremain a few years ago in The Road Home but Lewycka's version is much more readable. They both feature migrant workers, mostly from eastern Europe, working for market gardeners, poultry factories, and restaurants in England. Some of the characters are wonderful - I especially loved "Dog".

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Die Abenteuer einer Truppe ausländischer Erdbeerpflücker in England. Sie kommen aus Polen, der Ukraine, Afrika und China, haben alle gänzlich verschiedene Lebenswege und sehr bestimmte Ansichten darüber, was im Leben wichtig ist. Irina ist eine Tochter aus gutem ukrainischem Hause, will ihr (hervorragendes) Englisch verbessern und die große Liebe mit einem romantischen Engländer finden. Andrij kommt aus einer ganz anderen Ukraine: Er ist der Sohn eines Bergarbeiters und will keinesfalls so enden wie sein Vater. Dann sind da die Polen: der Bob-Dylan-Fan Tomasz, dessen Turnschuhe bald zu einer Geißel für seine männlichen Kollegen und Mitbewohner werden, Jola, die erfahrene Pflückerin mit der üppigen Figur, und ihre religiöse Nichte Marta, die so erstaunlich gut kochen kann. Dazu zwei Chinesinnen und Emanuel, ein Teenager aus Malawi, der in England seine Schwester suchen will und mit großen Augen diese merkwürdige Welt bestaunt. Doch die ist voller Gefahren, in Gestalt von erpresserischen Arbeitgebern, regelwütigen Behörden und bewaffneten Gangstern. Als dann der ausbeuterische Erdbeerfarmer überfahren wird, ergreift die ganze Mannschaft in einem klapprigen Wohnwagen die Flucht. Was sie bei ihrer Fahrt durch England erleben, kann sich so nur Marina Lewycka (oder vielleicht das Leben) ausdenken ...


Die nicht angezeigten und auch nicht kapitelweise sondern willkürlich mittendrin wechselnden Perspektiven erschweren die Lektüre teilweise. Zu Beginn des Buches, also etwa die ersten 100 Seiten, habe ich beim Lesen häufig geschmunzelt und stellenweise sogar gelacht. Leider wich das Humorvolle dem Vulgären in zunehmendem Maße, bis hin zum Ekelhaften, so dass ich Mitte des Buches ernsthaft erwog, abzubrechen. Hierbei ging es nicht nur um die angewandte Sprache der Protagonisten sondern auch beispielsweise die genaue Schilderung der Arbeit in einer industriellen Hühnerfarm aber schlimmer noch, was für brutale 'Spiele' die Arbeiter nach Feierabend mit den überlebenden Tieren anstellen. Mir ist schon klar, um welches Milieu es geht und auch, was es für ausbeuterische Machenschaften gibt aber man hätte das auch anders als hier vorliegend vermitteln können. 

Schade. 

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed her "Short history of Tractors" probably because my family has links with the Ukraine, and many migrants both to and from the UK, so that parts of the dialogue, the attitudes and the problems resonated with me.
Many of the reviews here seemed to criticise that book for not dealing with the present immigrant wave from the Eastern European countries, so that in this book Lewycka seems to have tried to address all those current problems from EE thugs, exploitation in illegal immigration, pay below minimum wage, inflationary compulsory prices for living and food and forced addiction and prostitution. It doesn't sound very optimistic for the theme of a humorous light easy-to-read book does it?
Somehow though the author manages to keep a light and humorous note all the way through the story and that is both its strength and its weakness. The jokey style makes it easy to read on - but equally it bathes the whole story in a mist of unreality, so that the suspension of disbelief necessary in most novels to allow for the chance and coincidences being so neat, is difficult to sustain.
Are there any parts of the book where the varied and numerous work opportunities presenting themselves to the characters are NOT the concern of the original agency that employed them? Also the love story that unfolds is a bit sacchariney for my liking.
There are parts of the story that will inevitably shock the reader, but somehow I can't imagine any decision made on the strength of changed attitudes from reading this story to last much beyond the week in which the book is read. The humour and the unrelentingly uncaring attitude of all the employers makes it all too easy to believe that the premises are unreal and can be totally disregarded. In other words the story draws superficial caricatures rather than painting people about whom we really care.
Lewycka has a real feel for prose, with some lovely cameos of dawn, sunset, a clearing in a wood etc., but she does not, to my mind, fully exploit her ability as a writer to make the people convincing. I also could have done with a list of dramatis personae at times. There are quite a number of characters initially, any or all of whom may prove to be central to the story, and the main story does not necessarily follow the ones whom one finds most engaging. This has caused many people to complain of dropped threads and unfinished stories. That does not irritate me because life is seldom neat and conclusive, but I do feel that overall Lewycka has missed an opportunity here by being a bit too frivolous in her approach.

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this. I think it is a stronger story and more interestingly written & structured than the History of Tractors book (read in Spain, 2006, but that's a complete aside). Sure, this is whimisical with migrant workers picking strawberries in Kent, living in caravans: but there's a dark undercurrent to the tale. Exploitation, poor working conditions, Eastern Euro cultures struggling to part from the communist past but taking with them the worst excesses of capitalism. I saw the book as very much a critique of captialism but also the commodification of humanity full stop. I really felt for poor Irina as she was literally hunted by the crooked, criminal migration agent & employment "consultants". But equally she was leered at by men in general. Other than her compatriot Andriy. He almost begrudgingly takes her under his wing & falls in love with her, despite her representing the new Europe, the new Ukraine and him representing the old. There is some nice allogorical work in here. The depiction of the poultry farm is graphic, horrific & you kind have to laugh at the black comedy or you'd cry. And turn vegetarian. The Dog who attaches himself to this caravan & the band of characters is a good touch of magic realism - we see events, albeit briefly, but we do see them from his dog perspective. Very simple & to the point. The narrative switches between the characters and in some senses time is irrelevant. I'm not sure how on one page Vitaly was picking strawberries and selling overpriced cans of beer to his comrades in the caravan & the next is working for the migrant employment agency in Dover finding dodgy jobs for those fresh off the ferry from Europe, dreaming the big dream of legal work in the EU. I found the setting of Dover vaguely reminscent of how Bill Bryson described in Notes From A Small Island. Kind of drab & down on it's luck. It's worth a read, this one.

[Наталія · Rating 4 out of 5]

Про книжки Марини Левицької на��ута добрими відгуками, відтак і сама вирішила ознайомитися. Томик «Два фургони» видали у вид-ві Факт ще в далекому 2008 році. Власне вони нахабно здурили читача обкладинкою книжки, бо ж не можна уявити собі щось більш дисонанснішого аніж вінтажне зображення якоїсь американської сім'ї з рамці з полуниці з тим, що ховається під палітуркою. Уявилося що весь роман може стати або тягомотиною з ретельними описами того, як наші герої проводять кожен день на полуничних полях, горблячи спини і ділячи надзвичайно скромну «житлову» площу двох фургонів. Інша асоціація була з рожево-солодкою любовною історією. Обидві виявилися хибними. «Два фургони» - це роман перш за все про українців в нетиповому для себе середовищі в яке вони прихопили з собою свої переконання, страхи, ��адії і добре почуття гумору. Розповідь ведеться від багатьох героїв книжки, що відразу створює відразу ефект об’ємності. Тут є навіть собака-оповідач (pov)!
Наперекір очікуванням нам не будуть впродовж всієї книги розповідати про заробляння грошей на полуничних плантаціях. Станеться подія, яка наче кий у більярді змусить наших героїв рухатися, шукати, рятуватися, подорожувати. Будуть пригоди, міжкультурні контакти і веселі, і не надто ситуації. Трохи наївно дитячою є ідея авторки на прикладі поєднання сердець дівчини з Києва та хлопця з Донецька показати пошуки спільної мови між Цетральною і Східною Україною. Але ця ідея є однією з акцентованих Левицькою, якій мабуть після помаранчевого Майдану боліла полярність переконань українців та роз’єднаність між ними. .
На загал книжка жвава, дотепна і ненудна. Справді трагічні історії залишаться за кадром, та і читач не зможе прослідкувати до завершення за всіма оповідачами. Гепі-енд буде, а депресуха –ні.

[Lavinia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several years ago I listened to Lewycka read from this book and I thought I was going to like it a lot. It starts very promising, with a bunch of strawberry pickers in UK (mainly Eastern Europeans, but also African and Chinese, quite a diverse cast, Hollywood should learn from this, lol), but then they part ways and the novel goes in too many different directions ("too much plenty", to quote one of the characters), some people are dropped in the first third of the novel (really, what happened to the Chinese girls in Amsterdam?), other 3 around the middle, end we end up with just two of them for the last half. It’s like watching the last 4 seasons of Friends with only Ross and Rachel. Sort of.

However, the novel raises some very serious issues, like illegal immigrants working on the black market for less than minimum wage, improper work conditions, human traffic a.s.o. It’s also somewhat funny, if you enjoy linguistic humour, but if you consider reading anything by Marina Lewicka, you’d better choose A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

[Gerald Sinstadt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The curse of the second novel. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was deservedly a best-seller, short-listed for all the best literary prizes. Casting around for a sequel can't have been easy. Marina Lewycka chooses to stay with eastern European immigrants in England, but fails to deliver the narrative cohesion that Peterborough and its close-knit family environment provided for the earlier book.

Two Caravans is close to being an untidy mess. Too many themes, too many ill-defined characters, too many loose ends, too many coincidences. The polemics against battery farming and against the exploitation of workers in the squalid world of the underpaid are heartfelt and gruesome. But they sit uncomfortably in a story that tries to embrace humour, farce, romance, politics and more than the reader may care to know about gearboxes.

A severe disappointment

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent! Utterly charming, relentlessly thought-provoking, delightfully fashioned. The story of a rag-tag company of immigrant strawberry pickers is told via a kaleidescope of tale-tellers. Each character, including a mythically perfect dog named Dog, has a distinctive voice and a strong world view. Each character is flawed, but each takes a turn narrating and showing the reader the world as he or she sees it. It is a world full of happiness and beauty much loved, side by side with horrific images of exploitation, suffering, and fear. The characters all wish for Goethe's "the best of all possible worlds" and each tries to fashion such a world. Despite some heavy subject matter, the light hand of the author keeps the story flowing merrily along and there are tremendous moments of comedy.

[Davida Chazan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In honor of my wedding anniversary, I thought I’d update one of my older reviews that I consider a classic love story. The one I picked is Marina Lewycka’s second novel “Two Caravans,” which American audiences you may know as “Strawberry Fields.” While this book isn’t quite as good as her debut novel, it certainly is fun! You can read my revised review on my blog here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2014/08/0...

[Leni Dytrych · Rating 4 out of 5]

Likeable characters, but put me off eating chickens ☺

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not going to lie. This book caught my eye simply because of the title. Well, that sounded stupid, isn't that how a lot of books catch people's eyes? OK, well this title caught my eye because I am a huge Beatles fan. Now, this book has absolutely nothing to do with the Beatles, but on first review it still looked interesting.

The short version: told from many different perspectives, Strawberry Fields is the story of a group of immigrants from Europe and Africa who find themselves picking strawberries on a farm in Kent, England. This is the premise that brings them together, and then, of course, many things happen and they begin a journey together (somewhat) around England.

Here was my inner monologue when reading this book and there is a spoiler, if you consider revealing a major part of the book's ending a spoiler.

1. Well, this isn't too bad.

2. I really like how the narrative voice keeps changing and keeping things interesting. Irina, the young Polish girl is in first person. Andriy, the handsome Polish miner's son is in third person. Emmanuel, the God-fearing singer from Malawi tells his stories through broken English letters to his sister.

3. Is this part being told from a dog's point of view?

4. It is. This is the single best character in the book. "I AM DOG I AM GOOD DOG I RUN FAST."

5. The whole chapter of the book that takes place at chicken farm / processing plant is horrifying. I had to skip most of it. I never want to eat a chicken again.

6. Maybe I shouldn't read this book...

7. Ooh! Eco terrorists!

8. You know, the single best part of this book is the inner monologue of the dog. It reminds me of the movie "Up".

9. Did they SERIOUSLY just kill the dog? A few pages from the end? What the *#$@.

Favorite passages:

It is the privilege of young people to fall in love with the wrong person, and they did.

I AM DOG I AM GOOD DOG I SIT WITH MY MAN I EAT DOG FOOD MEAT MAN EATS MAN FOOD BREAD FISH WE ALL EAT WE ALL SIT ON SMALL SMOOTH STONES NEAR BIG WATER SUN SHINES HOT THIS WATER IS NOT GOOD TO DRINK BAD TASTE BIG WATER RUNS AFTER DOG DOG RUNS AFTER BIG WATER BIG WATER HISSES AT DOG SSSS DOG BARKS AT BIG WATER WOOF DOG SNIFFS BIG WATER SNIFF SNIFF NO DOG SMELL NO MAN SMELL ONLY BIG WATER SMELL EVERYWHERE STONES WOOD WEEDS WASTE DOG FINDS MAN-SHOE BESIDE WATER WET SHOE GOOD MAN-SMELL SHOE DOG BRINGS WET SHOE TO SOUR-PISS-STRONG-FEET-SMELL MAN HE IS HAPPY GOOD DOG HE SAYS I AM GOOD DOG I AM DOG

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book gives an excellent perspective on the immigrant workforce in the UK, including casual strawberry picking, (most memorably and shockingly) the poultry industry, fishing off a pier, nursing homes (including a character from “Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine”, the restaurant trade and prostitution but is overall too weakly written to be a good book.

The main sets of characters all come together in two caravans (one male and one female) in a small Kent farm. The book eventually concentrates on two Ukrainians - Irina (a young, impressionable, pro-Western Ukrainian, daughter of a politicised History professor) and Andriy (from the other pro-Russian Ukraine, the son of a miner killed when the unemployed miners in desperation tried to re-open the pit and dig with their hands) who are increasingly drawn together as their life gets more dangerous purused by the middle-man Vulk who wants Irina either for himself or his clients or both and increasingly compromised by the Moldavian Vasily (initially a fellow picker but eventually a middle man).

The story is told in the first person by each of the characters – sometimes for a paragraph each, which can make the style awkward.

The sections of Andriy and Irina give a good perspective on the Ukraine, and the Poles (Yola – the supervisor and lover of the farmer, Marta her religious niece and the older Tomasz) are interesting but the naïve African Emanuel (who sections consist of letters to his sister) is unconvincing in voice and as a character while the two Chinese girls, except for a short section when they give their background, are stereotyped and the sections featuring the dog (and written in unpunctuated paragraphs of short sentences in capitals - I AM DOG I RUN) are very weak.

[Tasnime · Rating 1 out of 5]

'Immensely appealing. All but sings with zest for life...could hardly be more engaging, shrewd and winningly perceptive' Sunday Times

'Extremely funny, closely observed insights, scenes of farce, tragedy and horror' The Times Literary Supplement

'Hilarious and horrifying, Two Caravans is funny, clever and well observed' Guardian

I think not. This is by far the worst book I read this year. ِContrary to the reviews on the cover of Two Caravans, this book was not funny at all, not engaging at all and absolutely not hilarious.
Don't let the reviews fool you, this book is a mess.
It has too many flat, undeveloped and sadly cliched characters that you can't relate to.
I didn't like the way this book was written. (It has a dog's point of view for the love of god and it's not even funny)
But I continued reading it hoping that it will eventually get more interesting, and I seriously wish I didn't, you want to know why? Yeah well this book explains, IN DETAILS, the KILLING OF CHICKEN.
In all this was very disappointing because the cover and the book title are so beautiful and they make you just want to grab it and read it. But then the story slaps you on the face and you regret everything.
I don't recommend this to anyone, don't waste your money on this book.

[Martyna · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first, the plot promises to be very interesting.
The novel is about immigrants from Poland and Ukraine seeking work in Great Britain.
Together with several people from Africa and China they end up in a strawberry field to make money. All of them have very different characters, but they can get along, despite the barriers created by language.

With each passing moment it gets more and more interesting, only halfway through the book everything falls apart.
Monotonous scenes, prolonged anticipation of breathtaking action that does not appear - this creates the untapped potential that this reading could have.

Most of the characters won my sympathy, which is a big plus, but the protracted thread with the "bad" character was annoying. The presentation of each chapter from the perspective of different people in the first person added charm and ingenuity.

Overall, I am disappointed and I don't think I will ever come back to this novel.

[Alyssa · Rating 1 out of 5]

i started this and wasn't really compelled to finish reading it until i was stuck in an airport without anything else to read. and that's when i unfortunately came to the bit about the chicken farm, and it spoiled the whole book for me. yes, i already know that chicken farming/processing is not pleasant or humane. that's why i read books like fast food nation, buy free range organic chicken, etc. i don't expect to have to read about it in an otherwise very 'light' book (and it wasn't necessary for the plot IMHO). too graphic for what i was expecting.

story line was a bit predictable and things tied up a bit too neatly/coincidentally (although maybe the entire ukranian popn in the UK really does travel to the same british towns and frequent the exact same london restaurants? doubtful).

[Alta]

Not quite as good as the author's first novel, but still very engaging. Written in the tradition of Ilf's and Petrov's satirical novels (The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf). The reviewers who have criticized Marina Lewycka don't know HOW to read a novel: any novel needs to be read within the tradition(s)it comes from. When Lewycka introduces a lot of characters whom she later abandons, she follows the above tradition, whose goal is to depict a panoramic view of the society at a certain moment in history.

[Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating book that I am reading in tandem with Steinbeck's The a Grapes of Wrath. The story follows a very diverse group of migrants -- Ukranian, African, Polish, Chinese -- working in modern day English agriculture. The parallels with certain aspects of US migrant agricultural work are intriguing especially given the different nature of the nationalities and motivations making up the groups in the two different countries. The book itself has a wonderful dark humor which provides a vehicle to both convey the cultural differences and motivations of the motley set of agricultural workers as well as the dangers they face as a common group. An incredibly enjoyable book.

[Mircalla · Rating 3 out of 5]

breve storia dello sfruttamento delle masse socialiste al di fuori del loro paese

giovani ucraini, polacchi, africani e cinesi alla ricerca di un lavoro in Inghilterra...inutile dire che finiranno a raccogliere fragole nei campi per pochi spiccioli ai quali verranno detratti i "costi" per il vitto e l'alloggio

la prosa è semplice e leggera, ma il dramma raccontato è reale e non so proprio come questo si possa alleggerire parlandone come di una specie di favola

l'alchimia del primo libro non si è ripetuta, stavolta sotto lo smalto splendente della pubblicità si intravede molto di più il vero marcio che è stato coperto in fretta con la scusa dell'economia globale...

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, I can't believe I've owned 'A short history...' for years but never bothered to read it, Lewycka is a wonderful writer!! It sounds strange but I found this novel to be a lovely light hearted read although it dealt with issues like consumerism, prostitution, illegal immigrants, mass produced GMO food. I think Lewycka had a lot to say about the Western world and she managed to get her points across whilst telling an entertaining story. The characters clicked with me straight away and I was gripped. Recommend to all.

[Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars.

A very enjoyable read (and light, despite the topic). I preferred the first half of the book; the scene was still isolated which carried some magic with it. After that, everyone went their own way making everything a bit more mundane.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewycka has a wonderful gift for humor. There is a lot of dark humor and human misery in this book, but ultimately it's a very hopeful story. Perhaps more hopeful than the 21st century globalized economy deserves. But I like a fairy tale.