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Digging to America: A Novel

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Author: Anne Tyler
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$14.95~~
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Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

19 reviews
Sales Rank: 9115

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6

ISBN: 034549234X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345492340
ASIN: 034549234X

Publication Date: August 28, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ** Possible marking on cover. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. Delivery is 7-14 days for standard mail. **

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 19

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Entertaining but it falls short April 20, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

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.

2 out of 5 stars

As an Iranian-American, I was disappointed... March 13, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book was lying around my house and I had no clue some of the characters were Iranian until I started reading it. I read 4 chapters and put it down. First time in my life I've ever started a book and got so annoyed that I put it down. I found myself able to predict the thoughts and actions of the characters. I think my biggest problem is that everybody was too stereotyped. The way the Americans reacted to the "foreigners" was so 'well-intentioned ignorant white liberal who grew up only around whites', and the way the Iranian culture was portrayed seemed inaccurate to me. While there is a "foreigness" an Iranian or any foreigner for that matter, would feel in the United States, I've yet to hear anyone with reactions like Maryam. Ah well, to each his own. However, I don't recommend this book because I feel like you can't develop complex characters or complex relationships without having characters that go below the surface of a stereotype.

1 out of 5 stars

Huh? March 2, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful

I'm a big fan of Anne Tyler's and that's why I forced myself to finish this book. I just didn't get it. Usually her characters are so well developed, you feel as if you know them. I didn't feel connected to any of these characters. Very superficial, boring, repetitive book. I agree with one of the previous critics, this should have been more aptly named, "Digging For The Plot."

3 out of 5 stars

Ill Give It Three March 1, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Anne Tyler writes well, there is no doubt about it. This is the first book of hers that i have ever read, i simply found it and was intrigued by it while browsing through my local bookstore. Reading this book made me buy two more of her books, as the way she writes is something special.

This book was enjoyed well, but i got a little frustrated just at the fact that she never really got to talk about the girls lives themselves, she focused all around them, on the families that brought them up. maybe this was the point of the book, but i was really interested with the two main characters, being the girls... anne tyler never really seemed to focus on them. Reading half way through i was hoping for there to be some switch of focus from the families to the girls and how they turned out to be with the upbringings they were given. that never seemed to happen.

And the end of the book kinda just left you hanging, didn't seem to really finish or sit well with me. It was almost like i wanted to research on the net to see if there was a sequel coming out. nevertheless its a good enjoyable read.

4 out of 5 stars

The common denominator is love. February 27, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

I can identify the empty spot all women feel when there are no children to fill a life. As an adoptive mother, I'm close to the subject explored in my own way, for the welcoming of a new child and the bonds that are formed begin differently. But I can tell you with authority, that the first touch of mother and child is earthshaking.

And so, when these two children arrive simultaneously to two different sets of parents in the anonymity of an airport, their lives begin journeys in two directions...one raised in a "white bread" home; the other as the child of Iranian Americans, with a traditional matriarch.

The two families begin a close friendship with a shared celebration tradition of the girls' arrival, bring their cultures into it, which sometimes clash. But the underlying theme is the love of the adopted child, and I found this an interesting glimpse into the lives of two very special families.

May Lattanzio
Author: Waltz on the Wild Side - An Animal Lover's Journal
Contributor: Least Loved Beasts of the Really Wild West: A Tribute
Amazon Shorts author of Paradise, The Last Striper, The Strange Adventure of Vernal Page, with more to come.
on their friendships.

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