Not Quite The Abundant Land The Migrants Had In Mind (Two Caravans - Marina Lewycka)

Member Name: janharper

Product:	Two Caravans - Marina Lewycka
Date:	11/10/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great, relaxing reading

Disadvantages: Too short, I really wanted more of the story.

This is a funny, sad and charming story, littered with the author's very keen insights into the world of the strawberry picker community she writes about.

The tale unfolds on a strawberry farm in Kent and the workers are migrant fruit pickers from a number of different countries who are mostly looking for a new life and an improved lifestyle.

The men live in one caravan and the women live in another and the whole community is literally dumped in the middle of a field. There is Andriy who is a miner's son from the old Ukraine and Irina from the new. Both are the same nationality but they are suspicious of each other.

Then there are Tomasz and Yola from Poland, two Chinese girls who don't always understand what's going on and Emanuel an immigrant from Malawi. They all think they have finally hit the jackpot and come to England to partake of the benefits on offer.

The Russian gangster types like Vulk terrorise the community and England turns out to be quite a disappointment. Irina is kidnapped by the Russian and Andriy 'gets on his white charger' and rushes to save her.

Marina Lewycka was born in a German refugee camp. Her parents were Ukrainian and she grew up in England after the war. Her first novel, 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' was a resounding success. It was an outstanding piece of comic fiction and Two Caravans is just as good, if not better.

There are some truly hilarious moments in this book and one of my favourites is when the two Chinese girls notice the red dot in the centre of the shopkeeper's forehead and conclude that it is gunshot wound. This kind of humour runs right through the book but giving any more examples will spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it.

I would recommend this book to any adult readers. I don't think the humour would be appreciated by older teenagers although I suppose there will be exceptions. This is relaxing reading that takes the reader away to another world. Great for whiling away a few hours, (and don't forget to read Tractors too.)

Summary: A well told tale from an author with a hilarious and very individual sense of humour