About half our group of 12 liked the book and found it highly amusing. The rest found it hard to read due to the reflection on personal family dynamics. Regardless, it was a well written story about family dynamics.

This is wrongly sold as an amusing book.
While there are amusing elements - not least the outrageous insults that Valentina hurls at her enemies when riled - it is overall a sad refection on old age and the vulnerability and gullibility of the aged.
There are some great characters and an interesting background of events around the time of WWII and the build-up to it.
This book offers much more than the comedy advertised on the cover and I wish I had approached it with a different frame of mind.
Our book group is this evening and I expect to have an interesting discussion.
4 stars.

Good story - funny, poignant. We all felt better about our own family relationships after discussing the characters in the book!

If there was any consensus on this book it was that it was both sad and funny and while it meandered in plot, the characters-- and especially the language they used--kept us reading. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian presented many dichotomies of an immigrant family--political and emotional. In the end, it was hopeful and that's a good omen for our new year in reading.