Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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86 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Familiar and Yet New!, May 9, 2006
There is much of the familiar in Anne Tyler's latest novel, "Digging to America"; endearing characters, the bustle and flow of family life, and the small wonders of the quotidian world, but much is new here as well. For one thing, the protagonist Maryam is a most unusual "Tyler woman". She is small, compact and spare, elegant and soft spoken. She holds herself in and thinks before she speaks. She doesn't trail scarves, tissues and hairpins the way many of Tyler's women do. She's not prescient Justine from "Searching for Caleb", nor scatter-brained Maggie from "Breathing Lessons", nor a caretaker like Rebecca from "Back When We Were Grownups". And Maryam's "difference" is purposefully apt, for she is a foreigner. This novel, about two families who become intertwined when they both adopt Korean girls, explores the notions of fitting in, what it means to be "different", of what it is to be an "American", of what must be lost of the self to join a community. (This last point is amusingly illustrated in an attempt to coerce a tiny Chinese girl into giving up her pacifier.)
Readers familiar with Tyler's work will not be surprised to find that September 11th is given but a glancing swipe. After all, Tyler skimmed past WWII and the Vietnam war in her last novel "The Amateur Marriage"! The outside world does not affect Tyler's landscape the way family does. Ever.
This insightful tale of culture clash and will delight all Tyler fans. One can't help but assume that much of this story is autobiographical given that Tyler's late husband was from Iran. That certainly adds credibility to the characters. Also, the candid conversation two characters have about losing a spouse rings very true. I'm a huge Tyler fan, so she could publish her collected grocery lists and I would love it, but I can honestly offer my opinion that this novel will satisfy any reader interested in what it means to be a part of a whole; country, community or family.
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141 of 153 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Kinder, Gentler Jane Austin, May 4, 2006
I always marvel at what a quick and easy read Anne Tyler is without being glib and facile. Her latest novel DIGGING TO AMERICA is no exception. It's as if Jane Austin came to live in present day Baltimore and was kinder and gentler. There is not a single villain amongst Tyler's latest group of just off-center characters-- and there are enough folks here to fill up a Eudora Welty Sunday dinner-- I'm almost positive Ms. Welty would like this novel if she were alive.
Two couples, previously unknown to each other, arrive at the Baltimore airport on Friday, August 15, 1997 to meet their newly adopted baby daughters from Korea. Because of that meeting, they become friends, particularly the two mothers. The Donaldsons-- Bitsy and Brad-- are as American as key lime pie, and their new friends, Sami and Ziba Yazdan, are Iranian American. Much of the plot has to do with Sami's mother Maryam who came to the United States as a young bride and her difficulties with being between two worlds and not feeling at home in either.
The characters sometimes act silly, occasionally badly; but to a person they mean well. Ms. Tyler writes beautifully about finding love again in old age, a topic few writers do well or even attempt for that matter. Of course Gabriel Garcia Marquez covers that topic in the incomparable LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA; but then he writes well about everything. The author also tackles the tricky task of getting into the head of an Iranian character and apparently pulls it off. There are many instances of gentle humor here. Ms. Tyler pokes fun at Americans and all our foibles. Maryam has so much difficulty understanding Bitsy's father Dave: "He is so American. . . He takes up so much space. He seems to be unable to let a room stay as it is. . . He has cluttered my life with cell phones and answering machines and a fancy-shmancy teapot that makes my tea taste like metal. . . You think that if you keep company with them [Americans] you will be larger too, but then you see that they're making you shrink; they're expanding and edging you out."
Ms. Tyler writes eloquently about the solitude of old age. Her description of a day in the life of Maryam (p. 255) approaches poetry: "What a small, small life she lived! She had one grown son, one daughter-in-law, one grandchild and three close friends. Her work was pleasantly predictable. Her house hadn't change in decades. Next January she would be sixty-five years old-- not ancient, but even so, she couldn't hope for her world to grow anything but narrower from now on. She found this thought comforting rather than distressing."
Finally only a writer of Ms. Tyler's ability could make-- for me at least-- a party to wean a baby from pacifiers interesting. The guests at the event tie the pacifiers ("binkies") to helium-filled balloons and release them into the sky.
Another winner for Ms. Tyler.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet, Charming, and Meaningful, August 8, 2006
Anne Tyler has such a wonderful way of spinning a web around her readers...you are drawn in and trapped within her world of lush characters, all of them so unique, and yet so familiar. Such is the way with "Digging to America," one of her best in years.
The book begins with two families at the Baltimore Airport, each picking up an adoptive daughter from Korea. The first family, the Donaldsons (Brad and Bitsy, can we get more American? hahahha), are in-your-face, especially Bitsy. She is a "type"--she wears her own hand-woven clothing, she fiercely keeps her child's Korean name (Jin-ho), she is into health food and "cultural identity."
The other couple, Iranian Americans Sami and Ziba Yasdan, are a sometimes uncomfortable mix of their very strong ethnic roots and the need to be uber American. Their daughter, whose Korean name they change to Susan, is not as huge and healthy as Jin-Ho, and altogether different in every way.
Nevertheless, these two unlikely couples meld in friendship, largely through the overbearing efforts of Bitsy, who insists on having a yearly "Arrival Party," with both extended families on each side, to celebrate the girls' arrival. Sami's mother Maryam, a widow who emigrated 40 years ago but who still keeps herself aloof, comes along every time, although she very busily keeps herself separate. She adores her granddaughter Susan, but cannot fathom the ways of the Donaldsons, who are wont to do things like giving annual autumn "leaf parties," where everybody rakes.
The entire theme of this book, woven so effortlessly throughout the pages, is identity. Who are we? Are we each separate entities floating through life? Are we a "cultural" identity, such as "American" or "Iranian"? Are we all just humans in one big soup pot? Do we NEED these labels? It's a fascinating story, with a truly moving ending. I loved it and recommend it very highly.
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