I read the other reviews and generally agree that the characters didn't become important to me but that if I were going through cultural changes, the book would probably mean a lot more.

I just wonder if Tyler's characters are sometime too real for me -- the normal stuff of daily life and relationships but not people who make me think or wonder about things. I loved the Accidental Tourist but that might have been because George Guidall narrated it exceptionally well.

I loved this book! Once again Anne Tyler has written a wonderful and engaging novel. Definitely one of her best.

This story was weak and trite. I was able to listen to it through, but I would not recommend it.

If you (or someone dear to you) has ever felt like a permanent outsider in another culture, you are sure to find this book fascinating. By coincidence, two families happen to meet at a Baltimore airport. They are both there for the same reason. Each is adopting a baby arriving on a flight from Korea. One family is mainstream American (the Donaldson-Dickensons) and embraces multiculturalism, even if somewhat clumsily and offensively at times. The other family (the Yazdans) are Iranian-American. The baby's grandmother, Maryam Yazdan, is attractive, stylish, and somewhat elusive. She, in particular, seems caught between trying to blend in and not wanting fully to blend in with aspects of American culture that might make some of us cringe. Each character in the story presents with a unique predicament around the theme of cultural transition: Maryam's son, born in America, but uncertain about Iranian customs; the two babies, each brought up aware of their Korean origins, but minimally interested in that fact; garrulous Bitsy Dickenson (or is it, Donaldson?) who embraces her child's Korean birth and welcomes the Yazdans' Iranian background with occasionally overbearing curiosity; etc. This is a warm, sometimes funny novel about all kinds of transitions, including growing up and growing old. Like most of Anne Tyler's writing, "Digging to America" is effortless to read (or listen to). She seems keenly to have observed her characters, rather than to have invented them. Blair Brown's reading is superb.

Although it was OK, I found Digging to America disappointing when compared to other books by Ann Tyler such as A Slipping Down Life or Accidental Tourist. Her strength is the depth of her characters. You feel you know them personally. The characters in this book seemed shallower and although her stories are usually not as strong as her characters, this story was weaker than her norm to me.