Saturday’s Book: “Digging to America” by Anne Tyler

In case you are wondering, I haven’t finished “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth. That isn’t going to happen in the near future (still have a bit less than 1000 pages to go!). But I am still as fascinated by this book as I first was. I am particularly impressed by the female characters portrayed, the credit he gives them while presenting the restrictions of society. I can also see the same Seth that wrote “An Equal Music” – music plays an important role in this book.

“Digging to America” is the audio-bo0k I just finished. Anne Tyler is the author of the “The Accidental Tourist” (great movie too!) and “Searching for Caleb” which I have read (and many more books which I haven’t). The topic is an interesting one – the immigrant experience. The lives of two families in the United States are tied togehter when they adopt babies from Korea. One of these families is an immigrant family from Iran.

I knew the pace of the book would be slow, that is actually why I chose it. I’m reading such an engrossing book, my life is so hectic, I thought the pace would be comforting. And some of the time it was. Tyler doesn’t write about dramas so much as brings you into the everyday life of the families to see how they think. Some of the insights are spot on. I can relate to the immigrant experience!

But parts of it were too slow. Despite the amusing part near the end (tying pacifiers to helium balloons to get the child to stop using them, the day after a storm – funny!) I was quite ready for the book to end when it did. It could have been shorter and it isn’t that long…

Nice, but not one to make an effort to get your hands on.

2 thoughts on “Saturday’s Book: “Digging to America” by Anne Tyler”

  1. Good luck with ‘A Suitable Boy’. I think I read it on vacation where it probably took me a week. It is fascinating but packed with info so takes time to digest. The book by him I actually like best was ‘An Equal Music’ which I zipped through in a couple of days. And ‘Two lives’ is fascinating – have you read it?

  2. Yup – read “an equal music” but not the other one. I probably should have waited with such a book for the summer holidays. It is going to take me ages to finish it with my busy schedule!
    Thanks Marjorie!

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