[OFI]⇒ PDF Digging to America Anne Tyler 9780307263940 Books

Digging to America Anne Tyler 9780307263940 Books

Download As PDF : Digging to America Anne Tyler 9780307263940 Books

Digging to America Anne Tyler 9780307263940 Books

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.


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Digging to America Anne Tyler 9780307263940 Books Reviews

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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.