Peel me a Book
Let's Peel
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Not quite a family comedy. Not quite an immigration story. Definitely not a manual for agricultural machinery.
Perfect if you want to laugh at a family disaster before discovering what the family has survived.
Synopsis
“She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade”
Eighty-four-year-old Nikolai has fallen hopelessly in love with Valentina, a glamorous Ukrainian divorcee less than half his age. His two estranged daughters, Vera and Nadezhda, are horrified. Suddenly, a lifetime of sisterly warfare must be suspended to deal with a common enemy: their father's new romance.
What follows is a spectacular domestic catastrophe involving dubious intentions, expensive appliances, immigration bureaucracy and an elderly engineer who would rather write about tractors than acknowledge the wreckage around him.
But as the sisters wage war over their father's future, the family's past begins to surface: exile, hunger, wartime suffering and the complicated business of surviving history.
Lewycka makes a glorious mess of family loyalty, exposing the ridiculous things people do for love, money and the right to belong somewhere.
Mood:
chaotic · irreverent · bittersweet · compassionate
Tone:
farcical · sharp · warm · unsentimental
It Feels Like
Body:
A clenched jaw slowly giving way to helpless laughter, followed by an unexpected ache in the chest.
Tempo:
A domestic argument that keeps escalating, interrupted by quiet, unsettling journeys into the past.
Texture:
Plastic tablecloths, cheap perfume, cold tea and old family photographs curling at the edges.
A Little Taste
“Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six.”
The Aftertaste
You begin by laughing at a family tearing itself apart, only to discover how much it has already survived.
The absurdity fades, leaving something unexpectedly tender beneath the wreckage.
The uncomfortable knowledge that love rarely behaves with dignity.
Peel With a Drink
To be read with a generous glass of cherry brandy, poured into the fanciest glass in the cupboard, preferably one nobody is allowed to touch.
Sweet, warming and a little excessive — it makes you feel wonderfully indulgent at first, before the warmth settles into something heavier. Like a family celebration where someone has just mentioned the inheritance.
Peel With a Reel
Everything Is Illuminated (dir. Liev Schreiber, 2005) — An eccentric journey through Ukraine where absurd encounters gradually uncover the grief and memory buried beneath family history.
The Farewell (dir. Lulu Wang, 2019) — A bittersweet family comedy in which conflicting loyalties, cultural expectations and carefully guarded truths turn love into an elaborate performance.
Peel with a Beat
Peel me a Book
Or Try:
Miriam Toews
For families whose most ridiculous arguments conceal the things they cannot bear to discuss.
Let's Peel
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Not quite a family comedy. Not quite an immigration story. Definitely not a manual for agricultural machinery.
Perfect if you want to laugh at a family disaster before discovering what the family has survived.
Synopsis
“She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade”
Eighty-four-year-old Nikolai has fallen hopelessly in love with Valentina, a glamorous Ukrainian divorcee less than half his age. His two estranged daughters, Vera and Nadezhda, are horrified. Suddenly, a lifetime of sisterly warfare must be suspended to deal with a common enemy: their father's new romance.
What follows is a spectacular domestic catastrophe involving dubious intentions, expensive appliances, immigration bureaucracy and an elderly engineer who would rather write about tractors than acknowledge the wreckage around him.
But as the sisters wage war over their father's future, the family's past begins to surface: exile, hunger, wartime suffering and the complicated business of surviving history.
Lewycka makes a glorious mess of family loyalty, exposing the ridiculous things people do for love, money and the right to belong somewhere.
Mood:
chaotic · irreverent · bittersweet · compassionate
Tone:
farcical · sharp · warm · unsentimental
It Feels Like
Body:
A clenched jaw slowly giving way to helpless laughter, followed by an unexpected ache in the chest.
Tempo:
A domestic argument that keeps escalating, interrupted by quiet, unsettling journeys into the past.
Texture:
Plastic tablecloths, cheap perfume, cold tea and old family photographs curling at the edges.
A Little Taste
“Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six.”
The Aftertaste
You begin by laughing at a family tearing itself apart, only to discover how much it has already survived.
The absurdity fades, leaving something unexpectedly tender beneath the wreckage.
The uncomfortable knowledge that love rarely behaves with dignity.
Peel With a Drink
To be read with a generous glass of cherry brandy, poured into the fanciest glass in the cupboard, preferably one nobody is allowed to touch.
Sweet, warming and a little excessive — it makes you feel wonderfully indulgent at first, before the warmth settles into something heavier. Like a family celebration where someone has just mentioned the inheritance.
Peel With a Reel
Everything Is Illuminated (dir. Liev Schreiber, 2005) — An eccentric journey through Ukraine where absurd encounters gradually uncover the grief and memory buried beneath family history.
The Farewell (dir. Lulu Wang, 2019) — A bittersweet family comedy in which conflicting loyalties, cultural expectations and carefully guarded truths turn love into an elaborate performance.