Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka

When I walk into a bookstore, 7 out of 10 times I'll look for a light-hearted & funny book. Life is already too serious, so 'heavy' reading is something I do only once in a while. Anyway, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was good, so I looked forward to Two Caravans, the second novel by Marina Lewycka.

Two Caravans tells the story of a small group of migrant workers working on a strawberry farm in England in search of a better life. The male workers stay in one cramped caravan, and the women bunk in the other. One day, a particularly crazy event that involved the kidnapping of one of the girls and an enraged farmer resulted in this ragtag group of friends escaping in one of the caravans. In their search for the kidnapped girl and another line of work, they meet all sorts of people and get exploited by some really unscrupulous characters along the way.

The quotes on the cover of the book proclaim that it's a funny story, and though it is at times, there's some serious and disturbing commentary on the plight of migrant workers and work practices in England. It made me wonder about the foreign workers here in Singapore and also what a McNugget is really made of (the gang end up processing chickens when they leave the strawberry farm). Two caravans has a much bigger cast than Tractors - Ukrainians, Poles, Chinese, an African and even a dog. Because there is a little back story to almost everyone, there is less character development and so the characters are not as likable as, say, Papa from Tractors. But you gain interesting insight into Eastern Europe (especially Ukraine) as well as the lesser known effects of capitalism and globalisation.

I shall endeavour to quote my favourite lines from the books I read from now onwards. Here are 2 memorable ones from Caravans (not quite quote-worthy, but it did leave an impression):

How can love be perfect, when people aren't perfect?

There's a special sadness at the end of a journey. For it's only when you get to your destination that you discover the road doesn't end here after all.

Book ninja rating: 7 out of 10 tessen