Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka

I haven’t read Lewycka’s A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian but it has been sitting on my bookshelf for a number of years. As I finished the last page of Various Pets Alive and Dead I vowed it would be the next book I read. And that’s because Lewycka’s latest book is a brilliantly entertaining adventure. It’s smart and funny and one of those rare novels where you’ll think about individual characters long after you’ve finished reading.

The story is told from the point of view of three characters: Doro, a retiree in her mid-sixties and her two children, Serge and Clara. Doro spends a great deal of her time reflecting on her life in a hippy commune where adults shared domestic responsibilities including the parenting of several of the communes’ children. Predictably, this was not the idyllic world it was supposed to be. Back to the present day and Doro is still caring for one of the children (not biologically her own) who has Down syndrome.

Serge and Clara have grown up somewhat resentful of their upbringing but unable to escape its influences, both good and bad. Clara is a schoolteacher trying, without much success, to make a difference in a disadvantaged school. Serge has left an incomplete PhD in mathematics at Cambridge for a high-paying finance job in London. He is keeping the job a secret from his family as he knows they will disapprove of his cooperation with the evil capitalist regime.

Perhaps Lewycka’s greatest strength is her creation of character; each one is as sympathetic as they are infuriating. They remain so wonderfully believable even in the unlikely and sometimes farcical scenarios they find themselves. The book is set in 2008, and modern life, consumerism and greed are all examined with humorous and perceptive insight.

Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton