Digging to America [Audio CD]

Who is an American? What does it mean to be an American in cultural terms? What is an American family? Those are just three of the many interesting questions that Anne Tyler cleverly raises in her unexpected story of two families connected initially by having received their adopted Korean babies from couriers on the same flight landing in Baltimore. In the plot, perspective shifts among three generations and the cultural heritages of three nations. From these points of view, you can see that the answer to the three primary questions is quite different for each person in the story. You are left the space to draw your own conclusions about the ultimate answers, a courtesy indeed.

The book is primarily Maryam Yazdan's story. You'll learn how she came to America from Iran through an arranged marriage, eventually lost a husband, raised her son, developed an increasingly uneasy relationship with her daughter-in-law and her other relatives, saw her life revitalized by the arrival of a granddaughter, and opened herself up emotionally to an American man.

Two infertile couples decide to adopt from Korea, not an easy decision to make. Neither knows anyone else who has gone this route. It's not surprising that they would want to keep in touch after meeting by chance at the airport. Bitsy is the wild card in the group: American-born, she seems to lust after genuineness in other cultures. Bitsy also has her own strange ideas about parenting (the binky party is the best part of the book) and friendship (she makes a bigger fuss about the anniversary of the girls' arrivals than for her older daughter's birthday). Without Bitsy's quirky personality, this would be an average book.

The writing is beautiful in its gentle respect for the characters and desire to illuminate your thinking rather than forge your conclusions. Anne Tyler clearly likes to be considerate of her readers. Thank you!

The book has two drawbacks: Much of the plot and the development of the characters is pretty predictable in broad outlines (just the nuances are left for surprises) and it takes too long to fully develop Maryam's story. I would have enjoyed the book more if Ziba's and Susan's perspectives had been developed as a counterpoint to Maryam's perceptions while Maryam's narration was reduced.

Any Anne Tyler fan will feel rewarded by the heart-felt attention given to families in this often humorous work.

Digging to America is a very thoughtful story of 2 families, the Donaldson's, a typical American family and the Yazdans, Iranian immigrants. The book opens with both families, not knowing each other at the time, waiting at the airport for the arrival of their two baby daughter’s that each family has adopted from Korea. When the families realize they were both adopting babies from Korea, they thought it would be nice to stay in touch so that the girls could see each other. This was the beginning of the stories of 2 quite different families and their blossoming friendship. It was a very thoughtful story that had me laughing and even teary eyed at times. It was a nice story, worth the time, just not great.

I listened to the Audio CD version, which is not listed here on Amazon. It’s too bad, because the narrator, Blair Brown was excellent! She really brought the story to life!

This is a charming book in its own placid way (had there been the possibilty, I would have rated it with 3 1/2 stars).

Initially, I thought that the main subject was adoption, in reality this book explores more than that. In fact, I believe that its core revolves around the issues of family dynamics and integration in every sense of the word, starting from adopting babies from a far away country/culture and the subsequent adjusting to a new life, all the way through the struggles (for the older members of the family) to become well-integrated in a foreign country.

This is true especially for Maryam, one of the Grannies, who moved to the USA as a young bride from Iran. Although the narrative gently shifts from character to character (the two adoptive families, the new babies, all the relatives on both sides etc.) -and each and every one has a fair share of space in the book- I perceived that the main character is Maryam herself.
Sha has been a widow for years and it seems that, to this day, she has a sort of polite resilience to adjust to the American way of life (although she doesn't seem to miss her native country too much). Even so, she has found her niche and is content with the daily regularity of her life, until someone belonging to the other adoptive family -and to her, the stereotype of everything American- starts to show affection for her. Her sense of belonging, emotional and geographical, starts to oscillate causing a lingering and subtle vulnerability.
I see the rest of the story (the adoptions, the descriptions of both families and most of the ensuing situations), almost as a contour line surrounding Maryam's tale.

On the whole, I'd say that the characterizations in this book are good and very real-life, but the story line is a bit weak. Not too memorable but certainly a pleasant read, even comical at times (the give-up-binky party was very hilarious). I think that this book is suitable for young readers too (14+).