DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

The novel begins with Nikolai’s dramatic announcement that he plans to remarry to a woman fifty years younger than he. Nadia at first responds by trying not to judge, and instead diplomatically asks questions about both parties’ motivations. What would you do if you had a parent or family member who seemed to be entering into such a flawed allegiance? How far would you go to stop such a wedding? Do you think that Nadia responds appropriately?

I remember finding Nadia's response to her father's & Valentina's union quite annoying. For goodness' sake, if it was my father, I wouldn't dilly dally about like she did. Vera's response was much stronger and to the point: it must be stopped! I really liked Vera and her no nonsense attitude.


What do you think Valentina’s real motives are? Does she really want the best possible life for her son, is she simply after money, or does she seek love and contentment for herself? Go back to some scenes in the novel where she explains what she wants and defends her own actions against the accusations of Nadia and her sister. Whom do you believe? Do you feel sympathy for Valentina?

Valentina was so materialistic. I didn't feel sorry for her because she contrasts to Nadia's mother and I felt more towards her plight. I admired the mother. Maybe I would've felt more sympathetic towards Valentina had I known more about her personal circumstances. But it seemed she had a loving husband (willing to raise another man's child like she was his own) behind in Ukraina who would do anything for her. So no, I didn't feel sorry for her. I know English people who are materialistic like her and it drives me up the wall! I don't think she wanted to live in the UK for her son's sake. He was so unhappy wasn't he? He was so happy to be back with his father and on his way home to Ukraina. Poor kid! Valentina was like a spoilt child.


Nadia’s father becomes embroiled with Valentina for a variety of reasons, including his loneliness, romanticism, and generosity. Make a list of his motivations. Which do you think are most important to him? Is her considerable—and oft-advertised—sex appeal her primary attraction, or do you think it might be something else? What do you learn about his attitudes towards life and people from his book on tractors?

Loneliness, needing the drama, generosity, wanting to feel like a knight in shining armour, wanting to shirk adult responsibilities & have a bit of fun?! Perhaps because it involves his daughters more in his life - he might have worried they wouldn't bother with him as much after their mother's death.

Nikolai's Tractors book celebrates engineering genius. I thought it was an original & informative book about something we probably take for granted. I liked how he argued it was the tractor that opened up the American West, not the 'foolish cowboys' made famous by Hollywood. I'd never looked at it like that before! At the end, he writes 'use the technology which the engineer has developed, but use it with a humble and questioning spirit. Never allow technology to be your master, and never allow it to gain mastery over others.' I wonder if he's talking about Valentina here too. She went after the cooker, the cars etc with a vengeance, robbing Nikolai of his money (okay he gave it to her!) in order to acquire them. She certainly wasn't humble. I'm waffling now and don't even know if I'm on the right lines! I'm making a stab in the dark at answering this question!


Consider all of the ways in which sisters Vera and Nadia are different. How do they define themselves and each other? What influence does their childhood, and their difference in age, have on their personalities and current relationship with each other? What role does the family’s wartime experience play? What does Nadia mean when she says that she and her sister quarrel over “the inheritance of character, of nature”?


How does Nadia’s attitude towards Vera change over the course of the novel? What enables this evolution? Try to describe the state of their sisterhood at the end of the book and make some guesses about how it might continue to grow or evolve in the future. What kinds of grievances do Vera and Nadia decide to let go of, and which begin to seem less important? Have you ever had a conflict with a family member that you could not resolve without compromise, one profoundly rooted in the past?


Stanislaw is one of the more complex characters, in part because he is not in control of his own destiny but is instead subject to the whims of his mother and other adults. Though he is no innocent, he is in some ways a victim. Return to some sections of the book that deal with Stanislaw. Try to imagine the story from his point of view. Who would you trust in his situation? What would you hope for?


Do you think it’s fair of Nadia and Vera to try to have Valentina deported? What would her life be like back in Ukraine? What about Stanislaw’s future? Consider what both she and Nikolai say about life back in their homeland, both in the past and present. Do you think Valentina’s aspirations for a life in England are similar to those of other immigrants? How does Nadia struggle with the dissonance between being an immigrant herself and trying to deport an aspiring one?


How does Nadia’s vocation as a sociologist influence her approach to her family and to Valentina? Does it help her see the situation more clearly than others? Consider some of the times in which she seems to analyze circumstances more as a professional and others in which she responds less rationally. What does this suggest about the benefits and limitations of our attempts at logical explanation, particularly as regards our families?


One of the main points of contrast between Nadia and Vera’s mother and Valentina is their differing approaches to cooking and housekeeping. Go back to scenes where Nadia reflects on her mother’s garden in particular, and contrast that with the way Valentina keeps house. Which approach more closely matches your own? Do you think the differences might be attributed to generational changes? Or is there some deeper meaning about character and love that is revealed in their attitudes towards these tasks?

Definitely love and the fear drummed into the mother that food can become scarce at any moment. We take food for granted. Look at the amazing garden she created and cultivated because she didn't. That's inspirational and humbling. The mother was a more practical woman, not drawn into conspicuous consumption, and so shrewd with her money she amassed a small fortune which she didn't even get to spend. She worked hard to achieve this, whereas Valentina wants something for nothing. It angered me that she took the mother's (can't remember or spell her name!) pots & pans, cleared out the cooker and dirtied the bedroom. She had no respect for Nikolai and charged into his house with no thought to the family memories. (Nadia's mother reminds me of my own mother. She grew things for us to eat and was always cooking, cleaning, saving. Never treating herself to luxuries. If she were alive now, I would love to spoil her, but she would probably not want to be).

Valentina, crass, tacky, and pushy, is the center around which all characters revolve in this novel. How do different characters respond to her and why? What are some of the explanations that minor characters give for her behavior? Locate points in the book where people other than Nadia, Vera, and their father describe, respond to, or explain Valentina. Whom do you most agree with? How would you describe her?


Nadia says midway through the book that she “had thought this story was going to be a knockabout farce, but now I see it is developing into a knockabout tragedy.” about some of the more serious scenes and stories in the book, those that are tragic or frightening in nature. How much danger is Nikolai really in? How scarred is Vera by events that happened before Nadia was born? How does Lewycka retain the comic elements in spite of such subject matter?

I thought a lot of it was sad and a bit tragic, but Marina marries the sad to the comic well in the book. I think it's human nature to try to diffuse heavy subjects with a bit of humour. We can only bear so much grief & sadness til we need to lighten the load. Shakespeare put in a bit of comic relief in his tragic plays! (Perhaps that's why Never Let Me Go was so hard going - because it had absolutely no humour in it to lighten the heavy atmosphere). I'm not saying we shouldn't take all serious situations in the world seriously. I'm not explaining myself well at all!


How would you define Nikolai’s book, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, which is a book within the novel? Is it a history? A technical manual? A memoir? What does Nadia learn from reading this book, aside from facts about tractors? Consider also how it functions in the novel to provide crucial information for the reader about history and ideology. What does Nikolai accomplish through its writing?