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A review by book_concierge
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
4.0
Digital audiobook narrated by Blair Brown
A story of the immigrant experience and two families united by the decision to adopt. The novel opens at the airport where the Donaldsons and the Yazdans wait for the daughters they’ve adopted from Korea to arrive. Bitsy and Brad Donaldson, their parents, siblings, nieces and nephews are all there, loud, boisterous, excited to welcome the new addition to their family – Jin-Ho. They virtually take over the gate area. Lost at the back of the crowd wait Maryam, her son, Sami, and his American-Iranian wife, Ziba. Maryam Yazdan had come to America as a young bride and was widowed before she was forty. She retains the reserved, formal demeanor of her Iranian upbringing. Though they don’t express it outwardly, the Yazdans are just as excited to welcome Sooki, whom they will call Susan, to their family.
Tyler writes so well about family dynamics, about all the little events in our lives that both form and show who we are. One sentence perfectly sums it up: “Like most life-altering moments, it was disappointingly lacking in drama.” Over the course of the novel the reader will witness many of these little moments, will watch as two families come together based on a chance meeting, will learn how they differ and how they are the same.
The book also explores what it means to be “American.” Maryam, having lived two thirds of her life in the United States, carrying an American passport, still feels like a foreigner. Ziba, having come to America as a teenager, is fully assimilated, though she still speaks with a slight accent. Bitsy could never be mistaken for anything but an American; friendly and outgoing, offering her opinion on everything without a thought to how it might be received, and yet desperate to infuse her children’s upbringing with some of their native cultures (even when the kids want nothing more than to fit in with their peers, and not wear those “ridiculous outfits”).
As I got to know these characters, I grew to love them. And I wanted to give them all a big hug at the end.
Blair Brown does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She’s a talented actress and breathes life into all these characters. I particularly liked the way she interpreted Maryam and Bitsy, two women who are virtually polar opposites.
A story of the immigrant experience and two families united by the decision to adopt. The novel opens at the airport where the Donaldsons and the Yazdans wait for the daughters they’ve adopted from Korea to arrive. Bitsy and Brad Donaldson, their parents, siblings, nieces and nephews are all there, loud, boisterous, excited to welcome the new addition to their family – Jin-Ho. They virtually take over the gate area. Lost at the back of the crowd wait Maryam, her son, Sami, and his American-Iranian wife, Ziba. Maryam Yazdan had come to America as a young bride and was widowed before she was forty. She retains the reserved, formal demeanor of her Iranian upbringing. Though they don’t express it outwardly, the Yazdans are just as excited to welcome Sooki, whom they will call Susan, to their family.
Tyler writes so well about family dynamics, about all the little events in our lives that both form and show who we are. One sentence perfectly sums it up: “Like most life-altering moments, it was disappointingly lacking in drama.” Over the course of the novel the reader will witness many of these little moments, will watch as two families come together based on a chance meeting, will learn how they differ and how they are the same.
The book also explores what it means to be “American.” Maryam, having lived two thirds of her life in the United States, carrying an American passport, still feels like a foreigner. Ziba, having come to America as a teenager, is fully assimilated, though she still speaks with a slight accent. Bitsy could never be mistaken for anything but an American; friendly and outgoing, offering her opinion on everything without a thought to how it might be received, and yet desperate to infuse her children’s upbringing with some of their native cultures (even when the kids want nothing more than to fit in with their peers, and not wear those “ridiculous outfits”).
As I got to know these characters, I grew to love them. And I wanted to give them all a big hug at the end.
Blair Brown does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She’s a talented actress and breathes life into all these characters. I particularly liked the way she interpreted Maryam and Bitsy, two women who are virtually polar opposites.