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Digging to America

By Anne Tyler

(47)

| eBook | 9781407019604

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Book Description

Friday August 15th, 1997. The night the girls arrived. Two tiny Korean babies are delivered to Baltimore to two families who have no more in common than this. First there are the Donaldsons, decent Brad and homespun, tenacious Bitsy (with her 'more organic than thou' airs, who believes fervently Continue

Friday August 15th, 1997. The night the girls arrived. Two tiny Korean babies are delivered to Baltimore to two families who have no more in common than this. First there are the Donaldsons, decent Brad and homespun, tenacious Bitsy (with her 'more organic than thou' airs, who believes fervently that life can always be improved), two full sets of grandparents and a host of big-boned, confident relatives, taking delivery with characteristic American razzmatazz. Then there are the Yazdans, pretty, nervous Ziba (her family 'only one generation removed from the bazaar') and carefully assimilated Sami, with his elegant, elusive Iranian-born widowed mother Maryam, the grandmother-to-be, receiving their little bundle with wondering discretion.



Every year, on the anniversary of 'Arrival Day' their two extended families celebrate together, with more and more elaborately competitive parties, as tiny, delicate Susan, wholesome, stocky Jin-ho and, later, her new little sister Xiu-Mei, take roots, become American. While Maryam, the optimistic pessimist, confident that if things go wrong - as well they may - she will manage as she has before, contrarily preserves her 'outsider' status, as if to prove that, despite her passport, she is only a guest in this bewildering country.



Full of achingly hilarious moments and toe-curling misunderstandings, Digging to America is a novel with a deceptively small domestic canvas, and subtly large themes - it's about belonging and otherness, about insiders and outsiders, pride and prejudice, young love and unexpected old love, families and the impossibility of ever getting it right, about striving for connection and goodness against all the odds. And the end catches you by the throat, ambushes your emotions when you least expect it, as only Tyler can.

Critics

  • 'Digging to America' by Anne Tyler

    These questions -- and more -- are explored in Anne Tyler's brilliant Digging to America, her 17th novel, which has been critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic and was recently shortlisted for this year's Orange Broadband Prize for Fictio ... (read full critics)

    readingmatters published on Tue, 28 Sep 2010

  • Babes in the 'hood

    Digging to America Anne Tyler Chatto & Windus £16.99, pp277 It hardly seems likely that a novel could contain too much understanding. Isn't that what fiction aims at, supersaturation with insight? Still, that's the strongest criticism that can be mad ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

5 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    Some similar themes to Amateur Marriage, but a marvellous read, well written, witty - excellent. Anne Tyler always manages to leave you confused about which characters to tlike and which to dislike - this often changes as you read.

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    Canda said on Dec 10, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Reading Anne Tyler is like feeling home. Maybe this is not her best book and maybe there are too many themes overlapping here. Maybe she just wanted to “dig” up American multiethnic society and reflect on it from the interesting and never banal insight that is the trademark of her work. I guess i ... (continue)

    Reading Anne Tyler is like feeling home. Maybe this is not her best book and maybe there are too many themes overlapping here. Maybe she just wanted to “dig” up American multiethnic society and reflect on it from the interesting and never banal insight that is the trademark of her work. I guess it’s interesting that the main focus is not on the 2 adopted kids and on how they change in the new environment. The focus is on how the kids bring changes into the families life. There’s a great hope, which is maybe the essence of life itself, in assuming the resilience of a young life to a new environment.

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    Vouvoltar said on Apr 9, 2012 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

  • Only the second title I have read by this author, the previous one was 'Back When were Grown-ups' I enjoyed both very much and look forward to reading more of Anne Tyler's work. This is about two sets of adoptive parents and the relationship that forms between them, after they both adopt Korean babi ... (continue)

    Only the second title I have read by this author, the previous one was 'Back When were Grown-ups' I enjoyed both very much and look forward to reading more of Anne Tyler's work. This is about two sets of adoptive parents and the relationship that forms between them, after they both adopt Korean babies on the same day, the only thing they had in common, The novel describes their 'ordinary lives' in a compassionate and humurous narrative, covering family dynamics from all angles and a perfect ending!
    I already have the address for fifna in the Netherlands so am going to go the post office with it tomorrow, in the hope that it will get there before Christmas.

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    Lindyloumac said on Sep 24, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

  • a bore

    subject is great - two families adopt Korean kids at the same time and then...stay in touch. but after that, so what? no interest whatsoever. Dissapointing. Hadn't read Anne Tyler in a long time probably won't try again

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    Gail Paris said on Feb 23, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Digging to America

    A touching story of two dis-similar families drawn together by their adoption of Korean infants.

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    Readingrat said on Nov 27, 2007 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

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