Digging to America, book review

Every once in a while, when I’m craving a particularly effortless read, I pick up an Anne Tyler novel. Digging to America, my latest pick, opens with an airport scene as two baby girls from Korea arrive in America to be welcomed by their adoptive families: Jin-Ho by the Donaldsons (quintessentially American), and Susan by the Yazdans (Iranian immigrants). And in the first pages, as we explore the cultural and relational ramifications of these collisions of cultures, this seems to be what the story is about. But then, in our periphery, we catch a glimpse of something else: an unlikely relationship blooming between two of the grandparents, Dave Donaldson – recently widowed – and Maryam Yazdan – widowed for many years. Intrigued, we turn for a closer look, and lo and behold, the real story comes into focus: that of Maryam and her up-and-down journey toward acceptance, inclusiveness, and hope.

Tyler builds tension into every page by keeping us pleasantly off balance. She does this by creating full-bodied characters (she’s unflinching in including the bad with the good), who act and react in unexpected, yet completely credible, ways. She is a practiced student of human nature, and when I’m reading her work, I often find myself thinking, Yes, that’s true…people do do that. Tyler’s storytelling is seamless; her graceful prose, transparent. Just as good makeup draws attention to the face, not the product, so too do her words point to the story and not themselves.

Toward the end of her tale, Tyler writes a particularly whimsical chapter from the perspective of Jin-Ho (now age five). As a chapter, it’s an oddity, as the rest are related from either Maryam’s or Dave’s point of view, and I almost had the sense that Tyler wrote it as much to amuse herself as anything. But she pulls it off, and what emerges is a poignant story about belonging that is well worth reading.