Digging to America
June 2nd, 2006 Mary K. - Central
Anne Tyler has been a very prolific fiction author. By my count, this is her 17th book. All of them are good reads in different ways. Digging to America is now one of my favorites. Though Tyler’s characters are sometimes too eccentric, in this book they are very real and believable. In a recent interview Tyler talked about how she was married for many years to an Iranian doctor, but is now a widow. She also said that she witnessed the arrival of a child for an overseas adoption when she was in an airport and that was the spark for the novel. It’s apparent that both elements play into Digging to America.
This is the story of two families, who meet as they are picking up their adopted Korean daughters. There is the large Donaldson clan (very American) and then there are the Yazdans, an Iranian American family. The Donaldsons have their entire family at the airport to greet Jin-Ho and although the Yazdans are there alone to greet their daughter, whose name is changed to Susan, we soon meet their extended family and it is even larger than the Donaldsons.
The Donaldsons and Yazdans become friends, despite their differences, because they have the girls in common. Most of the story is told from the point of view of Susan’s grandmother, Maryam Yazdan, the widow of the Iranian doctor. Maryam becomes involved in the lives of both families. She also has a romantic relationship with one of the Donaldson relatives, that doesn’t work our the way we would expect.
Digging to America is humorous and poignant and has a lot to say about fitting in in a strange culture. I highly recommend this book.
Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction
3 Comments Add your own
1. Liz | June 3rd, 2006 at 9:22 am
I too loved this book, which has the BEST ending of any book in recent memory. Have you ever discussed (or just read) a book with an ending that was tacked on, or where it seemed the writer just ran out of steam or ideas? NOT SO HERE! What a satisfying finish. Don’t read the last pages first, though. Let it happen, then give a contented sigh.
2. Winnie | August 9th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Ms. Tyler has been one of my favorite writers for many years. I had the pleasure (and then the disbelief) of finding one of her novels in the discount bin in one of the chain bookstores. That book turned out to be one of my favorites. I’ve re-read it, and others, many times over. Her characters are full of life, and the richness of them is in the little details of their quirkiness. I never think twice about paying full price for one of her books. They are always worth the price. The book that I found in the discount bin was Breathing Lessons.
3. Lisa | March 17th, 2007 at 8:58 am
I have loved Tyler for a long time, but have found her last few books very disappointing. With all the good reviews of this book, I was hoping that trend would be reversed. But I found myself feeling the same about this one. I get impatient with her character’s long, somewhat trivia banter; the idiosyncracies of her characters, Bitsy in this one, drive me to distraction; and the repetitiveness of the family get-togethers was boring. I did find her development of Maryam more tolerable than the rest of her rather shallow characters. And, while the ending was cute, it couldn’t save the book for me. Oh well, I’ll keep trying!
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