Polka Dot Rock
20th July 2007, 09:40
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (19 April 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0099499398
ISBN-13: 978-0099499398
The blurb from the back
Friday August 15th, 1997. Two tiny Korean babies are delivered to Baltimore to two families with nothing in common. First there are the Donaldsons, decent Brad and homespun Bitsy and a host of relatives, taking delivery with characteristic American razzmatazz. Then there are the Yazdans, pretty, nervous Ziba and carefully assimilated Sami, with his elegant Iranian-born widowed mother Maryam, receiving their little bundle with wondering discretion.
Every year, on the anniversary of ‘Arrival Day’ the two families celebrate together, with increasingly elaborately competitive parties, as tiny, delicate Susan and wholesome, stocky Jin-ho, take roots and become American…
Full of achingly hilarious moments and toe-curling misunderstandings, Digging to America is about insiders and outsiders, pride and prejudice, young love and unexpected old love, families and the impossibility of ever getting it right…
A very well written, intelligent and sympathetic account of two very different families both experiencing the unique joys of adopting Korean baby girls: Jin-Ho and Susan.
Interestingly, the girls' own stories of living in and adjusting to America are actually secondary to that of Maryam, Susan's grandmother. Maryam came to live in America before the revolution in Iran, and Tyler frequently looks at Maryam's experiences of being an outsider, both as a girl in Iran and as an adult in America. (My favourite character was Maryam: probably because I'd quite like to be like her when I get to her age, lol.)
Tyler doesn't just focus on Maryam, however: we also see perspectives from Bitsy (Jin-Ho's mother), Dave (Bitsy's father), Sami and Ziba (Susan's parents) and even Jin-Ho herself, in a very funny chapter. (With regards to this, I thought it was a shame that Susan doesn't have a similar opportunity, as I'd like to have seen things from her point of view).
Tyler has a real knack of picking through her characters' emotional tangles and making sense of it. Throughout the novel, I got a real sense of these characters as actual people, with all their flaws that could irritate you, but also the emotional reasons behind their behaviour. That said, it's a very funny novel, as well as moving. Halfway through, the Donaldson's adopt a Chinese baby girl, Xiu-Mei, and her antics are hilarious! Her addiction to 'binkies' (dummies/pacifiers) is one of the funniest things I've read in ages.
I shall definitely be seeking out more Anne Tyler in the future!
9/10
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (19 April 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0099499398
ISBN-13: 978-0099499398
The blurb from the back
Friday August 15th, 1997. Two tiny Korean babies are delivered to Baltimore to two families with nothing in common. First there are the Donaldsons, decent Brad and homespun Bitsy and a host of relatives, taking delivery with characteristic American razzmatazz. Then there are the Yazdans, pretty, nervous Ziba and carefully assimilated Sami, with his elegant Iranian-born widowed mother Maryam, receiving their little bundle with wondering discretion.
Every year, on the anniversary of ‘Arrival Day’ the two families celebrate together, with increasingly elaborately competitive parties, as tiny, delicate Susan and wholesome, stocky Jin-ho, take roots and become American…
Full of achingly hilarious moments and toe-curling misunderstandings, Digging to America is about insiders and outsiders, pride and prejudice, young love and unexpected old love, families and the impossibility of ever getting it right…
A very well written, intelligent and sympathetic account of two very different families both experiencing the unique joys of adopting Korean baby girls: Jin-Ho and Susan.
Interestingly, the girls' own stories of living in and adjusting to America are actually secondary to that of Maryam, Susan's grandmother. Maryam came to live in America before the revolution in Iran, and Tyler frequently looks at Maryam's experiences of being an outsider, both as a girl in Iran and as an adult in America. (My favourite character was Maryam: probably because I'd quite like to be like her when I get to her age, lol.)
Tyler doesn't just focus on Maryam, however: we also see perspectives from Bitsy (Jin-Ho's mother), Dave (Bitsy's father), Sami and Ziba (Susan's parents) and even Jin-Ho herself, in a very funny chapter. (With regards to this, I thought it was a shame that Susan doesn't have a similar opportunity, as I'd like to have seen things from her point of view).
Tyler has a real knack of picking through her characters' emotional tangles and making sense of it. Throughout the novel, I got a real sense of these characters as actual people, with all their flaws that could irritate you, but also the emotional reasons behind their behaviour. That said, it's a very funny novel, as well as moving. Halfway through, the Donaldson's adopt a Chinese baby girl, Xiu-Mei, and her antics are hilarious! Her addiction to 'binkies' (dummies/pacifiers) is one of the funniest things I've read in ages.
I shall definitely be seeking out more Anne Tyler in the future!
9/10