از آن تایلر کتاب شام در رستوران دلتنگی رو خونده بودم و میدونستم حفره ای تا آمریکا داستان تقابل یک خانواده‌ی ایرانی و آمریکاییه‌. اما الان میتونم بگم داستان حفره ای تا آمریکا داستان مهاجرته. سختی واقعی مهاجرت، هویت هایی که از یه طرف میخوان همرنگ جماعت شن و از طرفی میخوان غریبگیشون رو حفظ کنن. مهاجرت به معنای واقعی تو این کتاب توصیف میشه. درد نشناختن خودت و کم شدن تعلق خاطر یه چیزهایی که زمانی "تو" رو میساختن رو برات آشنا میکنه و الان فکر میکنم مریم یزدان انگار از یه سریال ایرانی دهه‌ی هفتاد پرتاب شده بود به یه سریال مدرن آمریکایی و همونقدر خودشو گمشده و نامربوط احساس میکرد. زیبا و واقعی بود و ترجمه‌ی روانی داشت.

At my work we were given the task of filling out a sheet of paper about the books we liked and the ones we didn’t. There were ‘whys’ and titled examples of what drove us to keep reading and what simply drove us crazy. With a monument forged of papers, management then set about pairing us together and tasked us with recommending books to the other person as an exercise in reader advisory (I work in a library).

This was a book that was on my partner’s all-time favorites. I’ve since lost the sheet that had the total information on it, but I seized this book in order to try and get to know the person who recommended it, to try and built a bridge between our vastly different literary hunting grounds.

And so I started Digging to America, a story about two adopted foreign babies and the story of the drastically different families that raise them.

That’s it.

We see the children grow up, but mostly engages their families interacting and occasionally battling each other over their cultural differences (one is of Iranian heritage, the other white bread American).

The inoffensive style and milquetoast plot (non-hostile pushes towards assimilation and pushback on the premise that traditions are important, oh my!) dance around characters that are human, but in the most uninteresting way possible. They have desires and wants, but they feel so frivolous, so ‘is-this-really-all-you-have-to-worry-about’ that it feels more like being told a story about your parents neighbors than it does a novel.

As negative as all of this sounds I have to say, I didn’t hate the book. I didn’t anything it. I could pick it up and put it down the same way I would utensils from the dishwasher.  It was a book I read and continued reading until it was over and then I sat there for several moments trying to figure out how the hell I was going to talk about it.

I’ve always been someone who has abided by the rule that one should love a book, hate a book, but never succumb to indifference. Which is unfortunately where I currently find myself sitting. Digging to America is the story of two families. It is a shame, then, that neither of them managed to be anything more than passingly interesting.

Currently reading for a local book club. I would not have chosen this book myself based on the first several pages. It's an easy read, with too many mundane details. I find myself skimming over a lot of the text and that is not what I find an enjoyable. Nonetheless, some of the characters are interesting... we'll see where it goes.

Update: I only made it half way through and won't finish it. The book club gave this story a unanimous thumbs down due to sketchy, somewhat schizophrenic, character development, and an unlikely story line. Nothing much here to make you turn the page.

a book about two families who each adopt baby girls from Korea. She weaves all these characters together that are associated with the girls, it's facsinating to see how each character develops after the arrival of the girls, and how the girls fill voids in everyone's life. Highly recommend this book.