Digging to America

A Novel

By: Anne Tyler

Narrated by: Blair Brown

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2006 Anne Tyler (P)2006 Random House Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

"Digging to America succeeds on many levels - as a satire of millennial parenting, a tribute to autumn romances, and most important, an exploration of our risible (though poignant) attempts to welcome otherness into our midst." (Atlantic Monthly)
"Handling time with a light touch, Tyler creates many blissful moments of high emotion and keen humor while broaching hard truths about cultural differences, communication breakdowns, and family configurations. This deeply human tale of valiantly improvised lives is one of Tyler's best." (Booklist)

Zzzzzzzzzz

Dull, Dull, Dull-- I had read the first several reviews before I purchased this and was excited to read my first Anne Tyler novel. Based on this, I doubt I would read another. What could have been a fascinating look into the lives of families with foreign adopted children, was just an endless account of the lives of uninteresting and irritating people.

did not get into this one

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.

Disappointing

I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing materialized. The storyline was flat. The narrator, on the other hand, did a wonderful job.

Pretty boring

This book was somewhat enjoyable to me, but I just kept waiting for something, anything to happen and it never did. Very mundane, especially the whole section about Bitsey's second daughter's pacifier. I thought it would never end. I would not recommend this book, although I like Anne Tyler's writings.

Went Nowhere

I have to agree with the other reviewers who were waiting for something, anything, to happen. I used to love Anne Tyler, but now I feel as though she's getting published based on her past works. A first novelist would have been shopping this one for years, to no avail.