Title: Digging to America
Author: Anne Tyler
As I mentioned earlier this year, I always end up grabbing Anne Tyler's novels at the library and usually end up disappointed with what I've read. Not this time. Tyler is a master at writing about what she knows (most of her recent books have been about people of older-middle-age living in Baltimore, her hometown). This time, Tyler, who was married to an Iranian psychiatrist for many years, adds the addtional semi-autobiographical element of writing about the Iranian community in the greater DC area.
I was pleasantly surprised by Digging to America. The novel follows two families, the Yazdans and the Donaldsons, who both adopt Korean infants on the same day. The families quickly become friends, and eventually a romantic relationship blooms between Maryam and Dave, grandparents of the two girls. I enjoyed seeing Maryam come to terms with her status as an "outsider" within American culture, eventually discovering that she has actually preserved this outsider status, possibly to her own detriment.
--originally posted 12/12/06
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