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by Anne Tyler

ISBN: 0739326422
Author: Anne Tyler
Language: English
Publisher: Random House Large Print (May 2, 2006)
Pages: 416
Category: United States
Subcategory: Literature
Rating: 4.6
Votes: 981
Size Fb2: 1200 kb
Size ePub: 1804 kb
Size Djvu: 1961 kb
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Anne Tyler United States English

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Digging to America, published by Knopf in May 2006, is American author Anne Tyler's seventeenth novel. Digging to America is a story set in Baltimore, Maryland about two very different families’ experiences with adoption and their relationships with each other. Sami and Ziba Yazdan, an Iranian-American family, and Brad and Bitsy Dickinson-Donaldson, an all-American suburban family, meet at the airport on the day their infant daughters arrive from Korea to begin life in America.

People Who Read Digging to America Also Read. A Conversation with Anne Tyler. Inspired by Your Browsing History. People Who Read Digging to America Also Read. To read a novel by Anne Tyler is to fall in love. Startlingly fresh while retaining everything we love about her work.

Often she'd be loitering around the house a full hour after Maryam's arrival.

At eight o'clock in the evening, the Baltimore airport was nearly deserted. The wide gray corridors were empty, and the newsstands were dark, and the coffee shops were closed. One grandma was a rumpled, comfortable woman in a denim sundress and bandanna-print baseball cap; the other was thin and gilded and expertly made up, wearing an ecru linen pantsuit and dyed-to-match pumps. Often she'd be loitering around the house a full hour after Maryam's arrival. She was already dressed for the office, not that you would guess it (she still wore jeans, although she'd graduated to blazers and high heels), but it seemed she couldn't quite tear herself away from Susan.

Random House LLC Price set by seller I loved the large print.

Random House LLC Price set by seller. Tyler weaves a story that speaks to how we come to terms with our identity in multicultural America, and how we form friendships that move beyond the unease of differences. She does not dwell on the September 11 attacks, but subtly portrays the distrust that the Yazdans have to endure in the following months. I loved the large print. Read the book for a book club. a new definition of family, the role of women in a family setting.

Digging to America book.

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her bestselling novels include Breathing Lessons, The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Ladder of Years, Back When We Were Grownups, A Patchwork Planet, The Amateur Marriage, Digging to America, A Spool of Blue Thread, Vinegar Girl and Clock Dance. 1407019600, 9781407019604.

One grandma was a rumpled, comfortable woman in a denim sundress and bandanna-print baseball cap; the other was thin and gilded and expertly made up, wearing an ecru linen pantsuit and dyed-to-match pumps. The grandpas were dyed to match as well the rumpled woman's husband equally rumpled, his iron-gray curls overdue for a cutting, while the gilded woman's husband wore linen trousers and some sort of gauzy tropical shirt, and part of his bright yellow hair was possibly not his own.

Digging to America is a story set in Baltimore, Maryland about two very different families’ experiences with adoption and their relationships with each other. The title of Anne Tyler’s novel, Digging to America, is a reference to how the different characters in the novel perceive their identity in America. Bitsy, for instance, tries to individualize herself from others and raises her daughters to be different by preserving their Korean and Chinese heritage.

Anne Tyler draws a comedy that is not so much brilliant as luminous – its observant sharpness sweetened by a generous understanding of human fallibility".

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. Anne Tyler draws a comedy that is not so much brilliant as luminous – its observant sharpness sweetened by a generous understanding of human fallibility".

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. 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.

Anne Tyler’s richest, most deeply searching novel–a story about what it is to be an American, and about Iranian-born Maryam Yazdan, who, after 35 years in this country, must finally come to terms with her “outsiderness.”Two families, who would otherwise never have come together, meet by chance at the Baltimore airport – the Donaldsons, a very American couple, and the Yazdans, Maryam’s fully assimilated son and his attractive Iranian wife. Each couple is awaiting the arrival of an adopted infant daughter from Korea. After the instant babies from distant Asia are delivered, Bitsy Donaldson impulsively invites the Yazdans to celebrate: an “arrival party” that from then on is repeated every year as the two families become more and more deeply intertwined. Even Maryam is drawn in – up to a point. When she finds herself being courted by Bitsy Donaldson’s recently widowed father, all the values she cherishes – her traditions, her privacy, her otherness–are suddenly threatened.A luminous novel brimming with subtle, funny, and tender observations that immerse us in the challenges of both sides of the American story.

Comments:

Anarius

This is a story about two families who meet at the airport waiting for an adopted child from Korea to arrive for each of them. Through this shared bond, they become friends. One family is Iranian/American and the author liberally explains many Iranian traditions (in the epilogue she attributes this knowledge to her late husband who was Iranian born). I have read other Anne Tyler books and I am always impressed with how she colors the characters in great depth and tones. In this book, the women are much more detailed; the men are not thoroughly described which I find a negative. Although I enjoyed the book, there were times that it moved very slowly, particularly in the beginning. Although I was tempted to put it down, I am glad that I finished it. Anne Tyler always leaves me wondering about characters.

Ionzar

This was a very quick read. Before I knew it, I was almost finished, and that's because of Anne Tyler's keen ability to paint vivid characters and vivid scenes. I believed this story would focus on the adoption of Asian babies, but this aspect is only in the background. Digging To America springs forth from the adoption of two Korean girls--one to the Donaldsons, an American family, the other to the Yazdun Family, who are of Iranian heritage, and moves forward in time as the two families come together and share a new tradition: "Arrival Day." Each year the families alternate hosting the party marking the August day when they first met their babies as well as each other. The story spans about five or six years. There isn't much of a plot; however, the characters are so well drawn, that I felt I knew them, and grew very interested to see how their lives would play out in relation to one another.

The perspective shifts from chapter to chapter, a way to introduce most of the main characters. We primarily get to know the American mother, Bitsy, who is an opinionated, educated woman. She doesn't believe in disposable diapers or preschool, and she keeps her Korean-born daughter's given name, "Jin-ho," scoffing at the Yazdan family for changing their baby's name from "Sooki" to "Susan." There is also a tremendous amount of focus on Susan's Iranian grandmother, Maryam, a widow, who came to America by way of an arranged marriage. Maryam's experience as an immigrant and her constant struggle to assimilate to the American culture is mostly what this story is about, and when she becomes involved with Bitsy's widowed father, Dave, their awkward romance has tremendous impact, as these two families grow and change together.

I found chapter 9, when the perspective switches to young "Jin-ho," now the older sister to a little girl, "Xiu-mei," who was adopted from China, to be at first jarring to the pace of the story. The language and observations are too lofty for an adolescent. But as the story of the "Binky party" unfolds--another one of Bitsy's ideas to rid her daughter of the constant need for her pacifier--I grew more comfortable with the perspective, and found the story quite funny. The chapter itself was like a short story within the novel.

I recommend this book for Anne Tyler fans, and for those who appreciate character-driven stories and writing that flows.

Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.

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Two families adopt babies from different countries. They meet the darling bundles on the same night at the same airport and the shared experience brings them together as friends. Parenting ideas and cultural habits are front and center as the all grow in understanding and appreciation for what friendships demand. I found it interesting and insightful and well written.

Arashigore

I'm not going to rehash what everyone else has critiqued about this marvelous book. I just finished it an hour ago. Am still wiping my eyes and I still have a lump in my throat. Ms. Tyler never fails to grab me, twist me around, make me cry and then give me a big hug. I have ALL of her books. I have read several of them over and over. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant was my first and I have been hooked on her books ever since.

Anne Tyler's late husband was an Iranian, Dr. Taghi Modarressi, a psychiatrist, so she knows a lot about the Iranian culture. I am sure that she writes about her personal experiences of being an American woman married to an Iranian, and about the grief of losing a loved one to cancer. I don't remember the name of the book she wrote after her husband passed away, but I do remember the change in tone of that book -- more somber and more reflective. However, some parts of this book made me laugh out loud, especially Xiu-Mei and her "binky."

One of her best, if not the best.

Steel balls

I enjoy Tyler's method of using different voices in each chapter so we can get several characters' points of view. I particularly enjoyed the chapter from the standpoint of one of the children. We read that she has a personality, which hadn't been developed in the other chapters. The parents' always acknowledged the children's presence, but didn't really seem to know their children. They seemed to presume that the little girls loved being together, but in the little girl's (Jin Ho's?) chapter, we learned that she didn't particularly like the other family's adopted child. And the story about the pacifier was hilarious, with the funniest ending.
Even though Susan's grandmother had plenty of verbiage devoted to her character development, it seemed that the choices she made were inconsistent with her character.

Chinon

This is my favorite of all Anne Tyler's novels. It's a meditation on the nature of belonging and the importance of emotional connection: what it means to be a part of something, and apart from something. She writes beautifully about the joys of each. The ending made me cry. It's perfect, but not predictable. I love this book.

Yllk

I loved the large print. Read the book for a book club. Anne Tyler is an easy read but further discussion of our book led to some serious themes reflected in her book... a new definition of family, the role of women in a family setting. etc

Well, I am a huge Anne Tyler fan so I'm probably based. But I love this book and I've read it numerous times. Tyler is also a master at weaving family dramas like this -- Digging To America just never disappoints.