I really enjoyed this book! I found myself telling people about it over the week or so that I read it. I found it really fascinating -- this look at Americans and "foreigners" -- seen through this tale of two very different families who are brought together by the adoption of Korean baby girls. I loved how different the two families were -- heritage, parenting approaches, personality, etc. I could appreciate the two new mothers and their varied feelings. I could relate to both Bitsy and Ziba, as different as they were from each other. Though, I'm not sure I would have appreciated that aspect of the book if I wasn't yet a mother. I loved how the author really developed the various characters -- the parents and grandparents of the little girls. It was through the character development that the story of the girls was told. I was suprised by all of this -- I'd had the misconception that it was going to be about the girls and their experiences as they grew. But, that was really just a back-drop for the "real" story with Maryam and her inner struggle with her self-proclaimed "outsiderness." My only complaint about the book was the ending. I was a little disappointed -- I wasn't quite ready for it to end where it did. I closed the book feeling like I'd been cut off -- I wanted more. But, as I reflect a bit more, I think it was a very nice way to end the book. I think this would be a great book for a book club -- lots of things to discuss.

Absolutely brilliant. I enjoy the writing of Anne Tyler, but this book - this book surprised the socks off me. My favorite one of hers, and I just discovered it two weeks ago! Not sure how I missed it when it was published over a decade ago, but my local library included it on their recommendation list, and I'm so glad I picked it up. Each character is as real as my best friend. Each character is described so well, shown so beautifully under the light of Tyler's writing, that I feel as if they're still living here with me, in my reading room. Digging to America is a book that is as contemporary now as it was in 2006 - in fact, perhaps even more so. Two sets of culturally different Americans, each separately adopting Korean babies, and each parenting in different but equally loving ways. Love/friendship/parenthood/mothers&daughters&sons - it's all developed here in magnificent ways. Thank you Anne Taylor, for writing about the real America, with people of all colors and creeds and with all of our differences and similarities, in such a gorgeous novel.

What I anticipated versus what actually unfolded in this book were quite different. I was bored halfway through but wanted to endure the last half to find out what the ending would be. When I got to the very last page, I couldn't help but say "that's it?!" An uneventful ending to say the very least. The character development was quite unpolished and the plot was-- well, I guess I never found the main one, just a bunch of sub-plots that never fully became anything substantial or resounding. Quite disappointing to say the very least.

This book seems to have been following me around for the past couple of years, sneaking up on me in airports and various 3-for-2 offers that I see in bookshops. About a month ago I started requesting books from the library that have either won or been on the shortlist for competitions in the past, such as the Booker and the Orange prizes. Anne Tyler's book made the 2007 Orange shortlist.

The plot itself is intriguing enough. Two American couples, one homey Baltimore and the other Iranian in flavour, become friends when they each adopt a little girl from Korea. Their family lives become intertwined through the girls, their parents and grandparents. So far, so cosy. But..

The language in the book is very casual, so much so that it took me a while to get used to in the beginning, and I found the use of certain words such as 'lugging' jarring. Or is that an American vs. British English difference? In general the read was easy, almost like watching a soap on tv. The flip side of that is the almost indifference to its characters that the book inspires, despite the love and loss that the book serves up to try and endear itself to you.

The characters do grow on you slowly but right to the end I had the sneaking suspicion that none of the characters could be or ever have been real, so completely did each of them embody the stereotype they represented. This included the cute little girls, the all-American father and grandfather, the exotic Iranian grandmother and all the neighbours!

Interestingly, I found the most honest (or convincing) thoughts and conversations in the book to be about (national and cultural) identity and self, but surprisingly not that of the adopted girls. Perhaps I just expected something different from this book than the lazy, superficial story it delivered. Not one I would recommend to others.

[3.5 stars]

I enjoyed this story, though the first half dragged quite a bit. By the latter half I was much more invested in the characters' lives, especially that of Maryam who I think really should've been the central character all along. When it focused on her perspective and how she viewed the goings-on around her, I was much more able to connect to the story. I think a lot of that comes from Anne Tyler imbuing Maryam with so much of her own story, as her husband was an Iranian immigrant who died of cancer 9 years before this novel was published.

Overall not my favorite of Anne Tyler's work but it's always a pleasure reading her prose and seeing how she observes the world and parcels little tidbits or anecdotes that seem pulled from real life.

The book I'd give 5 stars -- but only 4 for the audiobook version. Was it the fault of the recording company? Or the performer? Or both? When the reader's general reading was great -- but the central character is Iranian and she voiced her with an Indian accent! Never mind that she pronounced many of the Farsi words incorrectly. Surely there are plenty of performers in the U.S. who can do an accurate Farsi accent... As far as the content, Anne Tyler has a huge heart, gigantic enough to love people, flawed as we all can be at times. A down-to-earth story about how when it all comes down to it, we're just people.

По мне слишком много национальной идентичности, как-то уж чересчур вычурно и в лоб

من همیشه درمورد این تقاضاهای ازدواج در معرض عموم مشکوک بودم، مردهایی که روی بیلبوردهای تجاری تقاضا می کنن یا هواپیما کرایه می کنن تا پارچه نوشته ای رو تو هوا بچرخونه. اگه زن ها دلشون نخواد ازدواج کنن چی؟ نتیجه اش چی میشه؟ می افتن تو تله. در ملأ عام، خب جز این که بگن بله، چی کار می تونن بکنن؟
_
«نقب زدن به آمریکا» به زندگي سام و زيبا، يك زن و شوهر ايراني مي پردازد كه در امريكا زندگي مي كنند و قرار است کودکی را به فرزندی قبول کنند. داستان، بيشتر حول محور مادر سام مي گذرد كه پس از ازدواج به امريكا آمده و در دنيايي متفاوت از فرهنگ خود زندگي كرده است. آن تایلر داستانش را حول محور زندگی زیبا و سام یزدانی و مادر سام –مریم- می‌سازد، در عین‌حال او به سبک زندگی مهاجران دیگری از آسیای شرق هم می‌پردازد.
_
کتاب چیز دندان گیر و جذابی ندارد، یک روایت ساده که به بررسی تفاوت های فرهنگی و خو گرفتن با جوامع گوناگون و مشکلات مهاجرت می پردازد. در این بین شاید چون نیمی از کتاب راجع به خانواده ای ایرانی است، اشارات به آداب و فرهنگ و رسوم و عقاید و نگرش ها برای ما کمی جذاب باشد.

Crazy over this book What a wonderful, hopeful, appealing story with a range of characters who are all memorable and endearing. Sometimes we have to take a step back and really open our eyes and hearts to each other—and to ourselves. It seems fitting that I finished this book on the dawn of a new chapter in American history

Anne Tyler, the queen of quirky but loveable, has done it again. She reaches into the heart of people who seem so different than ourselves, and reveals them to be just like us. Why is it that when we feel insecure (or like we aren’t like other people or that everyone has the key but us), we can’t look around and see that everyone else feels the same way? We are just people trying to find our way through whatever life or circumstances we find ourselves in.

The story centers around two families, each of whom adopt a Korean child on the same day. The children bind the families together, despite the obvious differences between them. One family is abjectly American, the other Iranian. Maryam, the Iranian grandmother, feels like an outsider, even after thirty-five years of being an American.

You start to believe that your life is defined by your foreignness. You think everything would be different if only you belonged.’If only I were back home,’ you say, ‘and you forget that you wouldn’t belong there either, after all these years. It wouldn’t be home at all anymore.’

I have only been transplanted from one state to another, but I know this feeling well. I have also lived away for thirty-five years, and I often think about going “home” and wonder where home would be. Places change, people change, perhaps if we do not carry home around with us, we lose it.

The book is full of such moments and thoughts that feel real to me. And these people feel real to me...they like one another in spite of all the reasons there are not to like one another. Without noticing, they come to love one another. They are complicated, flawed and human, they make us laugh, shake our heads, and then cry. Nothing happens that is spectacular, but then isn’t that true of life? Most of our most significant living is done in very ordinary ways.

Digging to America is about two families who meet at the airport in Baltimore, picking up their infant adopted Korean daughters who happen to be arriving on the same flight. Jin-Ho is delivered to Bitsy and Brad Donaldson, and Sooki's new parents are Ziba and Sami Yazdan.

Nearly every aspect of foreignness imaginable is explored in this beautiful story, where aloof Grandmother Maryam feels foreign in her native land, her adopted land, even in her social circles; where haphazard Bitsy feels foreign in her own home(!); where cultures collide and converge and even mesh. This book is also about friendship and loss and insecurity and parenting and so much else, but all of it entertaining.
I finished this book with a confused wail, of sadness that it was over, and also of joy for the victory of humanity's better nature, despite our most ingrained traits (cultural and otherwise). I love reading Anne Tyler, and every character in this book for being so fully lifelike and plausible.

I haven't always gotten along with Anne Tyler's books (except VINEGAR GIRL, which was delightful) but this one is an exception to this trend. It's on belonging (apart from other things) and it's really sweet. Maryam is the best.