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| Two Caravans | 
 enlarge | Author: Marina Lewycka
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
New (37) Collectible (1) from £1.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 1696
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141026995
EAN: 9780141026992
ASIN: 0141026995
Publication Date: March 5, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Ukrainians in England part 2 October 28, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have mixed feelings about this book.
Marina Lewycka was of course forced into writing a sequel by the amazing success of "Tractors". The crazy, rampant humour of "Tractors" has gone, to be replaced by a darker story of life on the underside of Britain in the first decade 21st century. There are many comic moments, and the treatment of the story (from the viewpoint of each of the main protagonists) is a neat touch. There are many strands left unfinished, so maybe another story is on its way.
I'll keep on eating strawberries, but I'm not sure about supermarket chickens!
 It could have been good October 22, 2007
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
It sounded so promising... A story about some of the awful circumstances foreign migrant workers find themselves when coming to this country. Mix in a bit of black humour and it sounded interesting. Unfortunately i just don't enjoy her rather waffly style of writing. The story telling jumps around from character to character so I found it all a bit tedious to follow and you really don't care much about the characters. I'm 3/4 of the way through but really thinking I may as well give up and move on.
 Funny and touching but drifted away at the end September 29, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is dedicated to the Chinese migrant workers who died in Morcambe Bay several years ago which is a very touching gesture, showing the vulnerability of any illegal migrant worker, which includes many of the characters in the book.
I loved reading the odd preconceived ideas that the characters had of English people before they had got to know many and wondered whether much of this had been from the authors own experiences within the Ukrainian community.
There was also loads of action through the book which kept me tied to the page.
I had big expectations of "Tractors" before I read it due to the award nominations and publicity it had received and was ultimately disappointed. This book had not received a huge amount of publicity and I enjoyed it tremendously (not sure whether that is a genuine comment about the quality of the book or about measurement against expectations....)
The humour that was brought in was very clever, particularly considering the desperate working and living conditions.
A character from "Tractors" cleverly features in this book, although this was in no way a sequel.
The only disappointing part was the last 30 or so pages when the evironmental warrior characters are introduced. It seemed to me this was too late in a book to introduce a completely new set of people without the opportunity to develop them in any way - maybe the next book will be based around them.....
 Better than tractors September 7, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I think Lewycka was probably either fortunate or inspired to write A Short History of Ukrainian Tractors when she did. It was topical given the influx of Eastern Europeans and fitted a stereotype extremely well. It was a good book, though over-rated. This is much better.
In contrast to her first book, here Lewycka seems to really want to make a point - that the illegal workers in this country are all individuals and have their own stories, their own troubles and amongst them there are some good people that are being exploited by others. I think the novel gets this point accross and highlights that many people who come to this country expecting the best actually end up with worse living standards than where they came from. If this helps people generalise a bit less about immigrants then great.
At times its far-fetched - and considering she has Ukrainian blood there are some strangely basic errors with the Russian language and Eastern European context. However, its a very readable novel and left me much less frustrated than her first book.
Light reading with a message.
 rather disappointing June 25, 2007
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
I absolutely loved Lewycka's first book, so I was was looking forward to a real treat with Two Caravans. However it failed to hold my interest - not due to the subject matter, but due to the disjointed plotting and lacklustre unengaging characters. The one character who came alive for me and I wanted to know more about was Yola, but she was overshadowed by the irritating Irina and Andriy. And I found the interruptions by 'Dog' pointless and lame. Overall, a disappointment.
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