Digging to America (2006)

Digging to America, published by Knopf in May 2006, is American author Anne Tyler's seventeenth novel.

Plot

Digging to America is a story set in Baltimore, Maryland about two very different families’ experiences with adoption and their relationships with each other. Sami and Ziba Yazdan, an Iranian-American couple, and Brad and Bitsy Dickinson-Donaldson, an all-American suburban couple, meet at the airport on the day their adopted infant daughters arrive from Korea.

The differences between the two families are apparent from the beginning, especially in the way each couple decides to raise their daughters. Brad and Bitsy try not to Americanize their daughter, Jin-Ho; they keep her Korean name and teach her about Korean culture as she grows up. Sami and Ziba, on the other hand, choose to raise their daughter Susan as an American.

Through the efforts of Bitsy, the two families begin a tradition of celebrating their daughters’ arrival in America with an Arrival Party each year. The celebration becomes a mix of American, Korean, and Iranian culture. The story continues to progress through the early childhood of Jin-Ho and Susan, displaying the differences in how they are raised and the impact it has on them as they grow older. At times, the relationship between the two families is strained because of their contrasting opinions, but they remain good friends throughout the entire story.

As the lives of the two families continue to become closer, a new and separate relationship starts to flourish between Bitsy's widowed father, Dave, and Sami's widowed mother, Maryam.

Characters

Jin-Ho Dickinson-Donaldson – the daughter of Brad and Bitsy, adopted from Korea at six months of age. Jin Ho is a complex character who maintains a dynamic personality throughout the book.

Susan Yazdan – the daughter of Sami and Ziba, adopted from Korea at six months of age. Susan may be seen as “bossy” to Jin Ho, but she is clearly the apple of her parents’ eye.

Bitsy Donaldson – the mother of Jin-Ho and Xiu-Mei, wife of Brad, and daughter of Connie and Dave.

Ziba Yazdan – the mother of Susan and wife of Sami. Ziba immigrated to the United States from Iran in high school and works as an interior designer. Ziba is very self-aware, always concerned about others and about her self-image.

Brad Donaldson – the father of Jin-Ho and Xiu-Mei, husband of Bitsy, and son of Pat and Lou. Brad is a loving husband who seems to believe Bitsy can do no wrong.

Sami Yazdan – the father of Susan, husband of Ziba, and son of Maryam. Sami was born in the United States. He is a quiet but opinionated man who really has a heart for his family.

Maryam – The mother of Sami and grandmother of Susan. Maryam is still very in touch with the Iranian culture. Her quiet confidence is sometimes portrayed as snotty. Maryam and Dave's “love” relationship is one of the most complex relationships in the novel.

Dave – the father of Bitsy, grandfather of Jin-Ho and Xiu-Mei, and husband of the late Connie. He is a warm-hearted and jolly man who falls in love with Maryam.

Lou – the father of Brad and husband of Pat.

Pat – the mother of Brad and wife of Lou.

Xiu-Mei – the younger daughter of Bitsy and Brad, adopted from China. She worries her parents sick with her pacifier addiction. Her stubborn ways prove to be a challenge for Brad and Bitsy.

Farah – the cousin of Maryam who lives in Vermont with her husband. She keeps in touch with her Iranian relatives, but manages to live an extravagant and exciting life that Maryam throws herself into once a year.

Themes

Belonging

Michiko Kakutani in her New York Times book review: "In Ms. Tyler's new novel, Digging to America, belonging is a question not only of family but of being an American too: whether an immigrant can ever feel completely at home in the States, or whether he or she will always feel like an outsider; whether identity is a matter of will and choice or inherited culture and history...Ms. Tyler...delineates Maryam's efforts to come to terms with her new life in America with sympathy and wit, carefully tracking Maryam's ambivalent feelings toward Americans: the indignation she feels when condescending strangers praise her for having "an excellent vocabulary"; her impatience with trendy, multicultural liberals who willfully try to adopt foreigners' foods and traditions; and her anger at her son Sami when he mocks Americans for being self-absorbed, self-righteous and so instantaneously chummy."

Both the Donaldsons and the Yazdans adopt daughters from Korea; however, they take very different approaches to raising them. The Yazdans do more to make Susan feel like she is American than the Donaldsons do for Jin-Ho. The Yazdans change Sooki’s name to Susan, allow her to wear jeans, and style her hair in an American way. The Donaldsons keep Jin-Ho’s name the same, often dress her in Korean clothes and keep her hair the same as when she first arrived in America. Maryam struggles with the feeling that she doesn’t belong in America even though she’s been there for many years. She moved to America as a teenager and is now a U.S. citizen, but she is reluctant to call herself an American. She has distanced herself from the fast-paced American lifestyle. She does not own an answering machine or a cell phone. She says she danced the usual “Immigration Tango”, she was happy to become a U.S. citizen but sad to no longer be an Iranian citizen.

Parenting