I generally like Anne Tyler’s books very much despite the fact that there tends to be a certain same-iness about them. I guess that there are a fair number of people out there who dislike Anne Tyler’s book for precisely that reason. Digging to America deftly looks at what it’s like to be a foreigner in America and at the ideas of belonging and not (quite) belonging. It has the elements of a classic/typical Anne Tyler book, but there is something new and different about it as well. Something I can’t quite put my finger on, but something that I like very much.

P.S. As I read the descriptions of Iranian meals and culture and history, I recalled that Tyler’s late husband was himself Iranian; I think that coloured the way I read the book, because I could see a personal connection between the author and her subject and I found that quite touching.