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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780345492340
ISBN number: 034549234X
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: August 28, 2007
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: August 28, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 4537
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Rated by buyers 
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I have never read a book by Anne Tyler before, and probably won't read another.
The characters were pretty boring. Some of them seemed to have interesting internal lives, and the sections of the book where the reader encountered a character alone were the best parts. But when interacting with each other they lost all dimension and the dialogue was flat and cliched.
The two little girls could have been given a lot more depth, considering they seemed to be the central characters of the book when they are very first introduced. However, as the book goes on they have little interaction with the adult characters and seem more like stage props or pets. I guess, given the cover art, I thought the story would have been about the girls and that the reader would have been given more insight into their thoughts on being adopted, on growing up in American culture, etc. Just because they are children doesn't mean they can't have interesting perspectives on their situation.
Overall, it wasn't entirely poorly written, it was just boring and unengaging. Not to mention having to trudge through the pages and pages devoted to the "binky party," which really seemed to have no bearing on the rest of the plot at all.
Rated by buyers 
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This was a great book. It was a good story with interesting characters. Once I started reading, I could not stop. I'm looking forward to reading more of Anne Tyler's novels.
Rated by buyers -
In Digging to America, Ms. Tyler demonstrates how deeply she knows the American family. Set in suburban Baltimore, the novel is about two families from different cultures--one a suburban Caucasian family, the other an Iranian clan of self-made achievers. Their lives were intertwined when their adopted daughters from Korea arrive on the same night in the Baltimore airport. The novel progresses with Tyler revealing the thoughts of very first and second generation immigrant, and middle-class Caucasians on issues that are achingly familiar to today's America.
Digging to America is current and fresh. Reading it is like stepping out into the park and watching families interact with one another on a bright Sunday afternoon. Ms. Tyler places the reader as a friend of every major character, so the reader will have an insight on the character's plights and decisions. If you are first-time Tyler reader, this is the one you want to start with.
Rated by buyers 
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Oh gosh, folks ... hear the news that this book is not so much about its stated subject matter -- the adopted Asian children, or the American and Iranian families into which they are adopted -- as it is about who these people are and how they react ...
The book is, at heart, a marvelous character study -- Anne Tyler at her very best -- drawing intricate, thoughtful portraits of "ordinary" people in particular circumstances ... gentle, kind, finely honed observations on the people involved and, well, life itself.
Yes, it was perhaps something of a stretch for the author [although the NYT Book Review tells us that "Ms. Tyler was married for more than three decades to the Iranian-born child psychiatrist Taghi Modarressi, who died in 1997"], to blend the various ethnic sensibilities, but Anne Tyler fans who may have been put off by the plot synopsis need not fear -- this is a wonderfully observed novel, among her best, and although the subject matter is somewhat different than her usual Baltimore cast of characters, it is also very similar (the characters are, after all, wherever they may have come from, living in Baltimore), in her finely delineated description of each of the characters.
This is not to imply that she doesn't have something to say about different cultures and their interactions -- she does, of course, have quite a lot to say about that, but it's very subtly embedded in the character studies.
Avid Anne Tyler fan that I am (going as far back as "Tin Can Tree"), I blew off this book for almost two years, based on professional reviews and my own sense that this might not be on target, but I am very pleased to report that having gotten over all that, this book is one of her very best -- I just loved it, as I have just loved all her books.
I think it would serve as great introduction for those who have not read Anne Tyler, and for those who already know her, it's a total "must read".
Rated by buyers -
This book was entertaining, especially if you are interested in cultural differences, child rearing, female friendships, and relationships with a mother-in-law...but it falls short in that each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character so it reads sort of choppy...and it ends so abruptly, it's as if you've turned around and ran into the kitchen counter.
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