Digging to America: Amazon.co.uk: Anne Tyler: Books

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Product Description

Woman & Home, May

A small exquisitely painted canvas. Don’t miss it. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Works

"sweeping family drama." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

42 Reviews

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (42 customer reviews)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A small book with big questions, 20 Jun 2007

By	Cheshire Booklover - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digging to America (Paperback)

I love Anne Tyler's work. She writes about the ordinary and every day events that we take so much for granted, but in a way that makes us really think about and question what is happening. This book is no exception. The main event is more unusual than in her other books, as it centres around the adoption of two Korean girls by two very different families. Although they apparently have little in common other than the adoptions, the families meet each year to celebrate the day that their daughters arrived in the USA and into their lives. This apparently simple storyline raises much bigger questions and makes the reader think about things such as how do we create our national identity? What is a family? And why had I never thought to hold a 'raking party' to clear my garden in the autumn (seriously, it's a great idea!) The characters are, as always in Tyler's books, well-drawn and each is given an opportunity to tell part of the story through their own eyes. A really charming book that will stay with you long after you finish it.

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tyler on top form, 7 Aug 2007

By	Mr. S. Miller "Page Turner" (Glasgow, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Digging to America (Paperback)

Reading her books you get the impression that Anne Tyler could watch a couple from a distance and know by their gestures what they were saying to one another. Many great novelists can do that. Where Tyler stands out is that she would also know why they there were saying what they were saying even, and here's the best bit, if the couple lacked the same insight themselves.

She uses this gift to bring to life the most intriguing nuances from the most routine of domestic encounters and in "Digging to America" she proves these powers are undiminished. That alone would commend the novel, but Tyler does not stop there. She develops a convincing meditation on the many facets of ethnic integration alternately through the poignant awakenings of her Iranian heroine Maryam who has taken a generation to adapt to America, neatly counter-pointed against the first steps of two adopted Korean babies one of whom is Maryam's first Grand-child.

Her characters also cope with bereavement and a little serious illness, and yet the light touch that makes her novels and observations so accessible does not desert her.

Critics rave about this author for a reason. Discover for yourself. You won't be disappointed.

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, 23 Aug 2007

By	B. Kinnari - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Digging to America (Paperback)

As an adoptive parent of two children born in Korea, and as a foreigner living abroad myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. My sister in law, a native in the country in which I have lived for the past fifteen years, and who has never been a long-term foreign citizen anywhere, did not understand this book. She was almost apologetic when she loaned it to me, but she thought I would like it because of the two characters who were adopted from Korea. I, on the other hand, loved Digging to America from cover to cover.

When Marjam said that she will always be a foreigner--both at "home" in Iran, as well as in the USA--I knew I had found an author who understood what it is really like to be transplanted. That it involved Korean adoption seemed to be a secondary theme.

If a person doesn't care for this book, it will be because they either lack the empathy to understand what it's like to be a foreigner in a different culture, or because they believed it to be a book about Korean adoption when it's really about something much deeper than that.

A must read for anybody who has struggled with their identity as a result of having changed countries and cultures.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars adoption, close-up
Anne Tyler is ALWAYS worth reading and here she binds us to her book in an especially interesting fashion. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Kiki

4.0 out of 5 stars Adopting Korean Babies
There is much to like and admire in Anne Tyler's writing. Her very assured and thoughtful creation of characters is perhaps her best talent. Read more

Published 1 month ago by E. Shaw

3.0 out of 5 stars an okay read
I read this for a reading group meeting; it's not a book I would have chosen myself because I've already read many books about Iranians in the US and would like to read about... Read more

Published 2 months ago by J. Mellor

5.0 out of 5 stars Like an old dressing gown or a treasured pair of well worn slippers
Coming to a Tyler book is, for me, like slipping into an old dressing gown or a treasured pair of well worn slippers. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Aquinas

3.0 out of 5 stars Not one of her best, but worth reading if you have the time
I'm a big fan of Anne Tyler's finely-crafted observations about everyday life around Baltimore, but this recent addition to her long list of titles isn't one of her best. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Phil O'Sofa

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing and so true...
I have been living in the West for about 8 years now, and while I don't really miss my home country in the Southeast Asia that much (I wasn't an economic migrant, but I moved... Read more

Published 4 months ago by R. TONDER

1.0 out of 5 stars Dreary and depressing. Sorry!
Not sure if it is OK to criticise Anne Tyler (!) but I found this book depressing and dreary and boring. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Becky Sharpe

4.0 out of 5 stars Digging To America
How great is it when you read that totally reminds you why you read, why you should try books you wouldn't and in particular why you should try and author you haven't before? Read more

Published 9 months ago by Simon Savidge "savidgeread...

5.0 out of 5 stars Well deserved five stars!
How anyone could rate this book below three stars is completely beyond me and quite ludicrous. This is definitely one of my favorite Anne Tyler books! Read more

Published 9 months ago by Lulushka8

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining read

I finished this book last night and still don't really know what to make of it. I enjoyed the book but there were times when it was dull and because it centres mostly... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Ms. K. Marsh

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	90% buy the item featured on this page: Digging to America 3.8 out of 5 stars (42)
	3% buy The Clock Winder 4.1 out of 5 stars (7) �5.49
	3% buy Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant 4.5 out of 5 stars (11) �5.21
	2% buy Small Island 4.4 out of 5 stars (94) �4.47

Digging to America (Hardcover)

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