Marina Lewycka –Two Caravans
A Review of the Author's Second Novel
The characters all have their own reasons for being in Britain, whether it is to earn money to take back home for their families, to find lost friends, or even to look out for the chance of love. Ultimately, they are there to try and improve their lives.
However, the England they dreamed of is not how they expected, and they are thrown into a seedy and dangerous world of exploitation, prostitution and murder. The story gets darker and more sinister throughout but Lewycka keeps the narrative lighthearted and witty.
The Characters
Rather than becoming a novel of despair, it instead shows the struggles that immigrants come across in a comical yet caring and thought-provoking way. The characters make the best of bad situations and manage to remain positive and get on with their journeys despite the tragedies that occur.
The narrative switches between different characters, giving the reader the opportunity to see multiple versions of events and understand what each person is feeling. The novel follows the characters experiences around England, and while it is Irina and Andriy who take up much of the story's attention, Lewycka manages to give all the characters a developed personality and background.
The strawberry pickers consist of
- Polish Yola who comes to England every summer to make money to take home for her family, and her religious niece Marta
- Tomasz, who wants to see a bit of the world, try to find some old Bob Dylan records and, as the novel states, "maybe even find love if it should come his way", and does so when he falls for Yola
- Two Chinese girls referred to as Chinese Girl One and Chinese Girl Two, but who have their own individual identities and backgrounds of broken hearts and disappointments
- Emmanuel, a Malawian who is looking for his sister and a friend, and briefly becomes obsessed with finding out about "canal knowledge"
- Vitaly, who succumbs to the world of "mobilfon men" and endangers his friends for his own ambitions, but who has his own sad tale which somehow manages to evoke the readers compassion
- Ukrainian Andriy and Irina, who both are open to the idea of finding love in England but instead find it in each other
Immigration Problems
It is evident that although this group of characters have their own plights, they are only a small section of the immigration problems. The reader is shown many other migrant workers that the group stumble across - Irina spends some time at another strawberry field where there are many others trying to earn a living, and when Tomasz works at a chicken factory he has to share a house which is so full of people that mattresses line the floors.
Friendships
Many of the workers they come across are solitary. This is particularly evident when Andriy and Emmanuel go fishing at the pier. The fishermen are from various countries and gather in groups of their own nationalities. Although Andriy and Emmanuel arrive together, they too join separate groups. However, when they do this, they encounter problems, and it is only when the group is together that they are able to face any problem.
The events that take place make the life they had at the strawberry farm seem idyllic. Although they are ripped off mercilessly by their boss and live in tiny and cramped caravans, the group manage to form a family unit and come together in the evenings to eat food, make music and form friendships
Two Caravans is a charming read, tackling social problems while still being entertaining and humourous.
The Author
Marina Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Kiel to Ukrainian parents, and brought up in England. Her first novel, the semi-autobiographical A Brief History of Tractors in Ukrainian, was published in 2005 and has won a number of prizes, including the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, and the Saga Award for Wit. Two Caravans was published in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. Her third novel, We Are All Made of Glue, was published in 2009.
Lewycka, Marina Two Caravans, Penguin 2009, 978-0141026992
Strawberries
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