Digging to America

There are a few writers whose
books I anxiously await. As soon as they hit the shelf, I buy and
devour them instantly. Anne Tyler is one of those. Digging to
America is about two families who each adopt babies from Korea.
One family is “typical” American and the other is an immigrant family
from Iran. The parents of the adopted child are American (or
Americanized at least) whereas the grandmother, who is one of the
integral characters, is the one who came to the US from Iran. The
novel explores many of the complicated issues around what it means to
be American.

As always, it’s a fantastic read and a wonderful snippet of the
ordinary and yet incredibly complicated lives of people who live in
the United States. It made me think a lot about the life my son’s
going to have. How he will forever be half-Turkish. How that might be
interesting/exotic for him or it might be alienating/weird. How the
way he feels about himself and his place in the world/country will
say so much about what his place ends up being. That goes for all of
us: we’re so much of what we say we are. The way we see ourselves,
defines the way we become. Defines the way others see us. Defines
many of our shortcomings and strengths. The image you exude is the
image others start getting to know you with.

Before I get too off topic, Anne Tyler has written another terrific
novel and made me wish she was much more prolific.