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| Two Caravans | 
 enlarge | Author: Marina Lewycka
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
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New (34) from £1.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 2835
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:
 Entertaining but inconsistent June 18, 2007
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
Following on from A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian Lewycka again focuses on Eastern Europeans in modern Britain.
Whilst the debate about immigration from Eastern Europe and EU expansion continues, Lewycka has taken the opportunity of allowing us an insight into the lives of a group of immigrants, predominantly Eastern European, who are employed to work as strawberry pickers in Southern England.
Lewycka demonstrates a talented eye for characterisation. Her description of the Dickensian predatory gangster/pimp Vulk is loaded with malignancy, intimidation and sleaze. Her use of sensory associations such as the smell of tooth decay, sweat and chip grease, underlines his repulsive nature.
She also brilliantly conveys the immigrants' working conditions. One scene in particular is the dehumanising working conditions in the Poultry Farm. Here, Lewycka has her character, Tomasz, a bohemian Pole with a penchant for poetry and song writing, don incredibly tight overalls and fight amongst a throng of chickens in exceptionally hot and unventilated conditions. The torture inflicted on both humans and chickens is cruel to the extreme. Tomasz compares the scene to a concentration camp. Indeed, he asks whether the good people of the local town are aware of the carnage going on at their doorstep, echoing the `quiet' slaughter of the Polish concentration camps. Indeed, the heat, sweat and chaos echoes Dostoevsky's famous Banya scene from House of the Dead.
However, another scene which is not quite as effective is the wildcat strike in the poultry processing plant. This is played out with such slapstick that it's in danger of falling into "I'm Alright Jack" territory, thus undercutting the seriousness of the situation. And what on earth is a union activist doing there in shorts??
The pace of the narrative moves at a fast pace, reflecting the urgency of the immigrants' lives. However, gaps, inconsistencies and loose ends appear. The transformation of Vitaly from humble strawberry picker to a recruitment consultant/exploiter is unconvincing; the sudden departure of Tomasz, Yola and Marta, results in large doses of black humour leaving the narrative also and the point of view narrative from the dog is, arguably, annoying and silly.
The biggest weakness of the novel is the anaemic two central characters, Andriy and Irina, to whom we become much more involved with in the second half of the novel as we follow their budding romance and their journey to Sheffield. Their ignorance, naivety and romanticism is so far-fetched and quite frankly stupid, that one begins to think that they deserve to be exploited. One example is Andriy not realising that a hand written note, written by a girl with whom he kissed in Sheffield several years before, was written in Roman letters, not Cyrillics; ok, I realise that the novel has a comic element, but this is not funny. Therefore, he consistently refers to her as `Vagvaga' instead of `Barbara' -dear oh dear. He also refers to David Blunkett as `Vloonki'; didn't he do any research before he left Ukraine for he UK?? I just wonder whether Lewycka has cleverly undercut both of these characters, while simultaneously having them as the central moral core. Only their meeting with some Northern Bohemian Earth Warriors, and an entertaining stopover at a nursing home (which houses a character with whom you may have met before from Lewycka's previous novel) saves us from eternal frustration with their tiresome discussions about Ukrainian politics and Irina's tepid romantic thoughts.
Overall a good, entertaining read.
 Horrifying, humourous, amusing and shocking June 18, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Horrifying, humourous, amusing and shocking...all at once(if that's actually possible. We're shown the plight of immigrants - mainly Eastern European, their hopes and wishes, their reality when they come to a country like the UK, and we're also shown some other "stereotypical" caricatures such as the English family.A rare and excellent example of how to write in a dialect such as broken English. I found this funnier and deeper than A Short History of Tractors .....although parts such as the Chicken farm do not make easy reading.
Put off eating chicken for life June 9, 2007
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
A great book, though not convinced it's better than her first. The characters really come to life and the portrayal of conditions illegals work in is certainly very thought provocking (especially the chicken factory!). A well rounded story full of highs and lows.
Dark Humour and Reality May 31, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Two caravans tells the story of migrant workers who travel to the UK in search of better life.
The writing style employed by Marina Lewyca is not my favourite, although it makes the book easy to read in coffee breaks, the bus or train.
underneath the Satire and dark humour present throughtout the description of coincidences and events impossible to be replicated exactly outside the realms of fiction, a deeper, upsetting truth surfaces: the vulnerability of those human beings in search for a better life, the ugliness of human trafficking and modern slavery disguised; a truth most of us choose to ignore when we purchase cheap clothes or food.
The book has a happy ending for most characters and as I finished the last page I couldn't stop wondering; in reality, how many of these people find happiness?
 Entertaining, original and thought-provoking May 31, 2007
25 out of 27 found this review helpful
When I first started reading this book, I thought it would be a light-hearted, humourous and enjoyable read. Humourous and enjoyable it certainly is, although underneath is an interesting and at times pretty shocking social commentary about migrant workers in the UK, and although highly readable, you will be incensed about some of the things the author brings to light - you will certainly never look at supermarket produce in the same way again. I'm glad I read this book, its entertaining and original and certainly makes you sit up and think.
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