Page Turners

Here is a list of books that have been shared on KMA's Page Turners with the Shenandoah Public Library.

Friday, October 26, 2007

DIGGING TO AMERICA—Anne Tyler—The book All Iowa Reads for 2008! I got a head start. A story about and of life and living. In it, two couples adopt Korean children (girls) one couple, quintessential American, the other an Iranian parentage. The American couple struggles to keep the cultural identity alive for their child while the other follows current American child-raising norms. Americans and Iranians are brought together as the families gather for the annual, “Adoption Day” party as well as other family events and over time the comfort level between the two groups change. The central character, Maryam, is the mother of the Iranian adoptive father, her discomforts living in the U.S., having immigrated from Iran when she was 19, and never feeling acclimated. She finds, however, a new interest in the grandfather of the child adopted by the American family. Not dramatic, not a thriller, but a day-by-day living and life story...a story for anyone who has ever felt uncomfortable in a new setting. Those reviews I read were somewhat mixed; but for those who didn't enjoy the book as much as I, I believe they misjudge, having expected (perhaps from the fly-leaf) something they didn't get. Her thoughts are much more profound than they discovered, yet affect all of us.

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