Scan barcode
A review by sarahanne8382
Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka
3.0
Who knew that a book about the plight of migrant farm workers could be so funny? Apparently if I had read Lewycka's first novel A Short History of Tractors in Urkrainian, I would have had an idea.
The books covers the story of a team of strawberry pickers on a British farm. The story switches around to show each character's point of view and it was neat how each character had a very distinctive voice. There's Irina, the idealistic Ukrainian girl who's here to work her way across Britain before starting University in the fall; Yola, the middle aged Polish single mother and team leader who understands the importance of sexual harmony on a strawberry picking team; her pious niece Marta, who at 30 is clearly not very attractive if she is still single; the men include Vitaly the constant schemer; Andriy a Ukrainian trying to escape his family's mining past; Emmanuel, a young African who remains cheerful despite his tragic childhood; and Tomasz, another Ukrainian and aging hippie devotee of Bob Dylan.
There are a lot of interesting little details to this book, but for me the combination of serious and funny made it feel more like a watered down Grapes of Wrath. Still it was enjoyable, and I could think of a lot worse things to read. If nothing else it was interesting to read about migrant workers that weren't Mexicans in the Southwester United States.
The books covers the story of a team of strawberry pickers on a British farm. The story switches around to show each character's point of view and it was neat how each character had a very distinctive voice. There's Irina, the idealistic Ukrainian girl who's here to work her way across Britain before starting University in the fall; Yola, the middle aged Polish single mother and team leader who understands the importance of sexual harmony on a strawberry picking team; her pious niece Marta, who at 30 is clearly not very attractive if she is still single; the men include Vitaly the constant schemer; Andriy a Ukrainian trying to escape his family's mining past; Emmanuel, a young African who remains cheerful despite his tragic childhood; and Tomasz, another Ukrainian and aging hippie devotee of Bob Dylan.
There are a lot of interesting little details to this book, but for me the combination of serious and funny made it feel more like a watered down Grapes of Wrath. Still it was enjoyable, and I could think of a lot worse things to read. If nothing else it was interesting to read about migrant workers that weren't Mexicans in the Southwester United States.