Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
398th out of 4,070 books
—
19,760 voters
Digging to America
by
Anne Tyler
In what is perhaps her richest and most deeply searching novel, Anne Tyler gives us a story about what it is to be an American, and about Maryam Yazdan, who after
Thirty-five 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 Ame...more
Thirty-five 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 Ame...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
May 2nd 2006
by Knopf
(first published 2006)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
First of all, I'm a HUGE Anne Tyler fan. To my mind, she can do no wrong. Reading one of her books is like curling up on the couch in a baggy cashmere sweater. That said, this is definitely not one of her strongest. She doesn't develop the characters in any particularly complex way and it's really hard to step into their shoes. Usually her portrayals of families are so hauntingly real, it's almost uncomfortable to read about them, but here it read like the "setting the scene" for a family drama...more
Sep 14, 2007
Natalie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
book clubs, mothers
Shelves:
great-for-book-clubs
I really enjoyed this book! I found myself telling people about it over the week or so that I read it. I found it really fascinating -- this look at Americans and "foreigners" -- seen through this tale of two very different families who are brought together by the adoption of Korean baby girls. I loved how different the two families were -- heritage, parenting approaches, personality, etc. I could appreciate the two new mothers and their varied feelings. I could relate to both Bitsy and Ziba, as...more
I must admit that the only thing keeping me out of the newspaper in yet another road rage story are the audio books I download or check out from the library. Listening to audio books while fighting rush hour traffic on 1-65 is my equivalent of counting to ten.
Anyone remember the actress Blair Brown from The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, circa 1987? Ah, my dependable Saturday night date. What a sweetheart. Anyway, I just finished listenting to the audio book Digging to America and I must say tha...more
Anyone remember the actress Blair Brown from The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, circa 1987? Ah, my dependable Saturday night date. What a sweetheart. Anyway, I just finished listenting to the audio book Digging to America and I must say tha...more
4 likes · like · see review
Jul 23, 2008
Erin
added it
I'M DOING THAT WEIRD THING AGAIN.
It occurs more regularly at those points in life when your bookshelf is particularly bare. I should certainly know, because right now half my books are trying to flatten out a bunch of AMAZING (and yet equally horrible) 90's movie posters I found at a garage sale last month. I'm thinking about wallpapering our living room with the likes of "Heat", "Weird Creatures", "Dante's Peak", and, of course, my favorite, "Jingle All the Way" (never actually saw it, mind you...more
It occurs more regularly at those points in life when your bookshelf is particularly bare. I should certainly know, because right now half my books are trying to flatten out a bunch of AMAZING (and yet equally horrible) 90's movie posters I found at a garage sale last month. I'm thinking about wallpapering our living room with the likes of "Heat", "Weird Creatures", "Dante's Peak", and, of course, my favorite, "Jingle All the Way" (never actually saw it, mind you...more
8 likes · like · see review
Aug 05, 2009
Cecilia
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
women's fiction readers
Shelves:
favorites
I found Digging to America a sweet, compassionate tale of mothers and their love for families…their own families and the families around them. Starting off with the adoption of two Asian girls by two different Baltimore families, Tyler does a great job of combining cultural experiences with those of family and life experiences. Not only the Asian culture is touched upon in this book…one of the families who adopts a child is Iranian. Both adopting families mesh well, with cultural differences som...more
2 likes · like · see review
Tyler creates an interesting story centering around two families who adopt children from Korea in the autumn of 1997. They meet at the airport on the "arrival day" and subsequently plan to meet on the day in the future to commemorate the children's arrival in America. The most interesting aspects of the book surround Maryam, the grandmother of one of the girls, an Iranian widow who struggles to find her place in America; and that of Dave, the American widower, who is the grandfather of the other...more
Aug 16, 2007
Elaine
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mainstreamlitfic,
eastasianwriters
In no way socks-or-mind blowing, but still has a quiet resonance -- it's essentially a love story between an elderly Iranian woman who's immigrated to the States and an elderly American man. Tyler works into this her usual flair for dialogue, layers in cultural nuances, dissonances, within both the Iranian and American communities, especially pertinent after Sept. 11, and sets it against the backdrop of the adoption of two Korean girls by two different families (one Iranian, of course, and the o...more
3 likes · like · see review
The title of this book comes from this question: if children in the U.S. dig a hole to China, are children in China digging to America? This seems to be a metaphor for the question of whether perhaps we're all, even the most American-seeming American, digging to America, or trying to figure out what it means to be American.
When the Donaldson (American through-and-through) and the Yazdans (Iranian-American) adopt baby girls from Korea on the same day, the families become the best of friends. It i...more
When the Donaldson (American through-and-through) and the Yazdans (Iranian-American) adopt baby girls from Korea on the same day, the families become the best of friends. It i...more
I'm always amazed how Ann Tyler can write such riveting stories where not all that much happens. It's all about the characters and "Digging To America" is no exception.
It follows the intertwined lives of two couples who meet at the Baltimore Airport when picking up their adopted Korean daughters. Bitsy and Brad are white upper-class Americans, while Sami and Ziba are Iranian-Americans. Their friendship spans their daughters' childhood.
What I really enjoyed about this book is the insight about i...more
It follows the intertwined lives of two couples who meet at the Baltimore Airport when picking up their adopted Korean daughters. Bitsy and Brad are white upper-class Americans, while Sami and Ziba are Iranian-Americans. Their friendship spans their daughters' childhood.
What I really enjoyed about this book is the insight about i...more
I really enjoyed this read. For light fiction Ann Tyler is my favorite choice. She throws out a snapshot of characters that are believable. This one explores a direction that I have not read from her before. Immigration and what it means to be American. I think that I may have found this more meaningful than some readers because I have read a few Iranian authors. The historical events referenced in this book offer little context and explanation but that is OK. With Tyler, a story is about the ch...more
This is a book to read when you want to relax. It was very calming to me. Two Baltimore families from different cultural backgrounds adopt Korean babies. The first "third" of the book deals with their meeting at the airport, their different parenting styles, and how their lives become indefinately intertwined. The middle "third" deals with the romance of the grandparents. The last "third" deals with how to break the pacifier habit (not exactly the most spellbinding part.) Woven through it all we...more
1 like · like · see review
Currently reading for a local book club. I would not have chosen this book myself based on the first several pages. It's an easy read, with too many mundane details. I find myself skimming over a lot of the text and that is not what I find an enjoyable. Nonetheless, some of the characters are interesting... we'll see where it goes.
Update: I only made it half way through and won't finish it. The book club gave this story a unanimous thumbs down due to sketchy, somewhat schizophrenic, character de...more
Update: I only made it half way through and won't finish it. The book club gave this story a unanimous thumbs down due to sketchy, somewhat schizophrenic, character de...more
6 likes · like · see review
What I anticipated versus what actually unfolded in this book were quite different. I was bored halfway through but wanted to endure the last half to find out what the ending would be. When I got to the very last page, I couldn't help but say "that's it?!" An uneventful ending to say the very least. The character development was quite unpolished and the plot was-- well, I guess I never found the main one, just a bunch of sub-plots that never fully became anything substantial or resounding. Quite...more
6 likes · like · see review
So, if you are longing for that feeling of being totally engrossed in a book go out and get this one. Anne Tyler is such a wonderful writer, her characters are just so real I was really living in this story. It's her 17th novel so I'm going to have to add a few more of hers to my list, so make that 1018 to go.[return]The themes are around cultural differences, emmigration, assimiliation and also family and personal relationships - so are there any others left? I loved the portrayal of the infatu...more
Feb 05, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
added it
In some ways, Anne Tyler's seventeenth novel departs from her trademark domestic dramas (The Amateur Marriage, ***1/2 May/June 2004). Like much of her previous work, Digging to America takes place in Baltimore, masterfully dissects "the fine threads of human relationships" (Wall Street Journal), and casts a sharp eye on the family unit. This time, culture clash, assimilation, and the meaning of "American" surface. Critics, who cite this as one of Tyler's best (albeit most challenging) novels, pr
...more
Jan 16, 2009
Katrina
marked it as to-read
In what is perhaps her richest and most deeply searching novel, Anne Tyler gives us a story about what it is to be an American, and about Maryam Yazdan, who after Thirty-five 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 American wife. Each couple is awaiting...more
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 American wife. Each couple is awaiting...more
Digging to America, by Anne Tyler. A. Narrated by Blair Brown, recorded by Harper Audio and downloaded through Audible.
The Publisher’s note says it as well as I could:
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 Donaldso...more
The Publisher’s note says it as well as I could:
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 Donaldso...more
is novel Anne Tyler explores the American culture and what it means to be American. But more than that, she looks at how people from different cultural backgrounds can intermingle and reject each other at the same time. How a person can live in a country for more than 30 years, adopt its nationality and yet never really integrate. And by which process someone who has grown and lived in several cultures might build his own identity, torn between his origins, national culture and that of his frien...more
I enjoyed reading this-- I know so many people like many of the characters. Once again, Tyler gives a sensitive, realistic telling of a simple tale. No earth shattering revelations, or sudden plot twists. Just real people and real lives, even in fiction.
Publisher Review
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 fami...more
Publisher Review
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 fami...more
This book seems to have been following me around for the past couple of years, sneaking up on me in airports and various 3-for-2 offers that I see in bookshops. About a month ago I started requesting books from the library that have either won or been on the shortlist for competitions in the past, such as the Booker and the Orange prizes. Anne Tyler's book made the 2007 Orange shortlist.
The plot itself is intriguing enough. Two American couples, one homey Baltimore and the other Iranian in flavo...more
The plot itself is intriguing enough. Two American couples, one homey Baltimore and the other Iranian in flavo...more
Tonight I finished Digging to America, a rumination on what America is, what makes a person American, and the nature of outsiders. Two Korean baby girls arrive on the same flight to Baltimore's airport, each met by her adoptive family. Because the Americans are loud and inclusive, they pull the Iranians into association which becomes friendship. The two extended families are full of ideas about each other, assigning cultural attributes based on peeping through this window onto others' lives. The...more
This book begins as the story of two infant girls adopted from Korea and evolves into a story of one of their grandmothers, which is really a story about learning who you are and where you belong.
Jin Ho and Susan are the children, adopted into two families in the USA. The families become close through the shared adoption/arrival experience, celebrating "Arrival Day" as well as various other conventional and non conventional holidays. Not only do the immediate families attend, but siblings and t...more
Anne Tyler is really good at writing books where... nothing happens.
That sounds like I don't like her, but that is not true, I do like her! I love reading her books. But I think that's because I'm a voyeur and I love spying into other people's lives. She writes about other people's lives so convincingly I feel like I am standing on the outside spying in on them -- one of my favorite things to do. That is why I love her books so much.
This one is the story of two different American families who ea...more
That sounds like I don't like her, but that is not true, I do like her! I love reading her books. But I think that's because I'm a voyeur and I love spying into other people's lives. She writes about other people's lives so convincingly I feel like I am standing on the outside spying in on them -- one of my favorite things to do. That is why I love her books so much.
This one is the story of two different American families who ea...more
Written in 2006, this novel is the story about two families whose adoptive daughters arrive on the same flight from Korea and unexpectedly tie these strangers for life. Deceptively simple, this is more than a story about people who struggle to understand each other in ways that are sometimes defined as culture and most definitely, differences of personality.
Told by a number of narrators, this novel is above all, the celebration of families, filled with larger than life, boisterous characters an...more
Told by a number of narrators, this novel is above all, the celebration of families, filled with larger than life, boisterous characters an...more
I can't remember an Anne Tyler novel I haven't enjoyed. I like the way she develops her characters and the family relationships.
Two families, the Yazdans and the Donaldsons, connect when they meet the Korean babies they're adopting at the airport in the days before September 11, 2001, when a festive greeting party could gather at the gate. The story is narrated by different voices. Maryam, an Iranian-American woman, who is the grandmother of one of the little girls, begins and ends the story, bu...more
Two families, the Yazdans and the Donaldsons, connect when they meet the Korean babies they're adopting at the airport in the days before September 11, 2001, when a festive greeting party could gather at the gate. The story is narrated by different voices. Maryam, an Iranian-American woman, who is the grandmother of one of the little girls, begins and ends the story, bu...more
This book explores what it means to be 'American'. And, how do Americans acculturate others. I kept wondering if any of these truths were 'universal.' For instance, if this 'typical' American family, the Donaldsons, were in Iran, would Iranians be treating them the way the Donaldsons are handling the Iranians here in the USA?
The book opens your American eyes to what your behaviors might look like when seen through other lenses, meaning non-American eyes. Take a peek at yourself in an Iranian Am...more
The book opens your American eyes to what your behaviors might look like when seen through other lenses, meaning non-American eyes. Take a peek at yourself in an Iranian Am...more
Two babies from Korea brought together two families--one from the United States and the other from Iran. In Digging to America, Anne Tyler tells the story of how two very different families became close friends to the point of becoming dependent on each other. It is interesting to follow the families adjusting to being parents/grandparents to adopted children, watch how the Iranian family brings their customs to American society, and see how much of the Korean girls' heritage should be retained....more
Two little girls arrive at BWI in 1997 to be adopted; the two families waiting for them become entwined for years. This is a quiet book. The things that happen in it are pretty basic, probably happening in a dozen houses in my neighborhood. What Tyler did brilliantly is get me to change my mind about the two dominant characters, Maryam and Bitsy.
Maryam has lived in the U.S. for about 40 years. She's a strong woman, in a quiet way, keeping her opinions to herself. At the beginning of the book, I...more
Maryam has lived in the U.S. for about 40 years. She's a strong woman, in a quiet way, keeping her opinions to herself. At the beginning of the book, I...more
I've had a couple of Anne Tyler novels on my shelf for over 20 years. However, I have never been able to get past the first few pages. There is something about the writing that is incredibly dull. At first I thought "Digging to America" was going to be another unread Anne Tyler but I persisted through the first chapter (the point at which I have normally given up) and it began to improve. Like others, I thought some of the characters, particularly Bitsy, were awful. I also didn't like the chapte...more
Anne Tyler is nothing if not consistent - she consistently places her novels in Baltimore (Roland Park / Towson corridor, more precisely - here even farther north to Hunt Valley) and consistently delves into family and near-family relationships. That delving is pretty realistic with a heavy dose of near-eccentric at times (e.g., "The Accidental Tourist"), which realism can lead to reader eyeball rolling when the personality / situation being described is so realistic as to be annoying. This book...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Should Maryam have married Dave? | 4 | 25 | Sep 06, 2012 06:39am | |
| Jin-Ho & Susan are in college, what do you think they'd say about their upbringing? | 2 | 13 | Aug 11, 2011 12:15am |
Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University.
The Beginner's Goodbye
is Anne Tyler's nineteenth novel; her eleventh,
Breathing Lessons
, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and...more
More about Anne Tyler...
Share This Book
2 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
Sep 03, 2007 02:50pm