Digging to America

Last month readers of The Breast Blog voted for Anne Tyler's novel, "Digging to America," as the first book for the monthly breast cancer book club selection.

Today the discussion begins!

"Digging to America" intertwines the lives of two families who share a common experience: adopting a little girl from Korea. From the opening chapter where the infant girls are greeted at the airport by the families to the last chapter where the families gather to celebrate the anniversary of that very arrival day, Anne Tyler offers a glimpse into the lives of families who adopt internationally.

While one child's (Jin-Ho's) family is typical American (if there is such a thing), the other child's (Susan's) family is Iranian-American. They eat Middle Eastern food and the grandmother (Maryam) switches from English to Farsi and talks talk about life 'in her country,' while trying to fit in a world away.

But of course these aren't the aspects of the story that I'll focus on here at The Breast Blog. I'm going to focus on the fact that at the start of the novel, JinHo's maternal grandmother (Connie) loses her battle to breast cancer. And towards the end of the novel we learn that Jin-Ho's mother (Bitsy) has breast cancer as well.

My opinion? I loved the international adoption theme because we have a daughter who was born in China. Because our daughter is our third child we do not celebrate her arrival day with fanfare; we celebrate her birthday because we celebrate her siblings' birthdays. But I understand the desire ... our daughter's 'gotcha day' is a day we'll never forget. Also, we do not use her Chinese name as her first name but we did choose to keep it as her middle name. I guess what I'm trying to say is I can relate to this facet of the story completely.

I enjoyed reading about the Iranian-American family because I am fascinated by cultures so unfamiliar to me, so foreign. When we traveled to China, I became intrigued by the perception the Chinese people had of Americans. I came to realize that Americans cannot begin to understand how we are viewed by other cultures, and though we have nothing to be ashamed of or guilty of, a little awareness of how we appear can't hurt. I'd love to learn if this is an honest representation of Iranian people living here in our country, those that immigrated and those of a second generation.

Now, onto the breast cancer ... I hated finding out that Connie wasn't going to live to see her granddaughter grow up. Perhaps that hit too close to home for me. My own mother just successfully battled ovarian cancer and it pained me to imagine she might have succumbed to the disease instead and not see my children grow. I hated reading about the adjustment it was for Connie's husband (Dave) after she died; facing the 'aloneness' and missing companionship. It made me think of my own father ... and each time Bitsy patted his hand with sympathy I pictured me consoling my dad.

When Bitsy herself was diagnosed ... I thought, of course. Then I thought what I've thought many times in my own life ... thank God those little girls didn't share their family's genes. What relief. I remembered this was fiction and not a memoir so nobody's life was really at stake but I still felt the same relief I feel that my daughter doesn't have a genetic risk of developing this dastard disease.

IMO, Anne Tyler painted a realistic portrait of the circumstances these two families faced, two families that could represent any family living in America. Though I found her inconsistent writing style (she continually changed perspective -- how irritating to me), I found her to be telling a credible story that kept my interest until the end. I kept thinking it could have read like a memoir had she stuck with one person's perspective the entire time (Maryam's?). Maybe I wanted that to be the case because so much of the book could have been a true story about my own life!

That's what I thought. Now it's your turn. Let me know what you thought. Leave your comments or email me your opinion/review at karenmlynch at gmail dot com and I can post them individually asap.