Digging to America begins with a pre-9/11 tradition: the welcome home party at the airport terminal gate. The extended Donaldson family and, on a much smaller scale, the Yazdan family, have gathered at the gate to welcome the newest members of their families, two infant daughters adopted from Korea. Through the irresistable efforts of Bitsy Donaldson, the two families become friends. Tyler’s loosely plotted novel follows the fortunes of the two families from this auspicious beginning through September 11, 2001 and beyond.
The Yazdans are immigrants from Iran in a time when immigrants to the U.S. seemed more interesting than threatening. To Maryam Yazdan, the grandmother of infant Susan, Americans’ interest in her “foreignness” is disturbing, infantilizing, a bit threatening, a constant reminder that she is exotic when she would prefer to think of herself as simply American.
Digging to America is the type of novel often dismissed as “women’s literature” — small, domestic, concerned solely with family and relationships. Tyler uses the small concerns of family and friendship as a leaping off point for an exploration of deeper matters of belonging, nationality, compassion. It’s an unusual thing in a book — light reading that leaves you thinking.
