Our book group discussed A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian at our last meeting, not that tractors were the important part of the book. Basically this story about two sisters uniting to "help" their 84 year old father when he decides to marry a 30-something year old "floozie" who is looking for a husband so she can stay in the U.S. There are lots of themes- family relationships, immigrants, history, memories and perceptions, and, yes, even tractors.

I wondered how our discussion would go because our hostess's father, in the same age group as our "hero" was part of our discussion. According to his daughter, he, too, had a "floozie" in his life after his wife died. This was brought up, and I gladly noticed that M did not equate himself with the father in the book, as he shared some of his life, and his writing with us.

The book was a delight to read and discuss in this environment. It was our third "immigrant book," I think, dealing with atrocities in the characters' homelands, but this one was dealt with through humor-- a relief for us all.