Pseudy book review

Date: 22 September 2006 19:13:18

I recently finished reading a book I enjoyed very much: "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian", by Marina Lewicka. It's the first book in absolutely ages that I've read pretty much all in one go. I really enjoyed it, it's a good light read and very funny in parts - the basic gist is that of two (previously feuding) sisters coming together to get rid of the 36 year old money-grabbing Ukrainian gold-digger who has managed to get herself married to their 84 year old widower father (also Ukrainian). It also has a series of historical flashbacks to Ukraine during the famine in the 1930s and the terrible war years and the paranoia of the purges. And (this is the Pseud's Corner bit) I found the almost grotesque juxtaposition of the ridiculous situation with the old man and his 30-something dolly bird with the terribly bleak historical flashbacks very reminiscent of the way a lot of eastern Europeans I know talk about the discord between their past and present - there's a tension between the two and a black humour there not at all unlike "hospital humour".

The other possibly pseudy thing about it all is that even while I was laughing at the horrendous Valentina I couldn't help feeling a bit guilty at my reaction to this stereotypical money-grabbing eastern European - I felt really superior and like I was looking down my nose at her. I remember when I read "Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry" (a spoof travel guide) I had no such scruples, and laughed all the way through it, and (on this very blog, IIRC) got really irritated with a terribly earnest review I'd read of it which berated it for its use of unhelpful stereotypes. It's ever so hard being a woolly liberal you know - I'm sure life would be much easier if I just turned into Mrs Daily Mail. That's not going to happen any time soon though.