Those Eastern Europeans...

For some many reasons, Laurie Graham's Life According to Lubka was just right for me. It was an easy read (it took around 5 hours to read it), it's funny, it's charming, and it's about Eastern Europe, which constitutes a special sort of in-joke for someone married to a Pole.

Buzz Wexler, a forty-two year-old American with more than a healthy dose of self-esteem, gets unlucky. Set to be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her role in managing the latest trends in urban music, she is overlooked in her company's merger and is forced to tour the country with a group of Bulgarian folk-singing grannies. What looks like a complete disaster at first soon turns into a fun, if unorthodox adventure, including the Bulgarian mafia, incompetent interpreters, fat Abba fans, Bulgarian hotties (not talking about the toothless grannies here) and knitting. When the tour moves on the the U.S., Buzz's family and a dead President add even more drama.
Although the set-up of the novel could have easily turned into a unsympathetic, ridiculing account of Bulgarian culture, Graham has a charming way of endearing her characters to the reader. For me, much of the hilarity stemmed from my own experiences with former communist countries (Although I would like to state quite clearly that my relatives do NOT keep sheep in their living rooms!), but Laurie Graham manages to capture the charm and friendliness that come with the chaos and terrible dress sense.
As for the rest, the story really does feel like the warm embrace the book cover promises; everything turns out just fine, families reconcile, and it makes you smile. Add hysterical translation mistakes, horrible band names and howlingly funny remarks, and this book wins on all counts.