Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5249 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-19
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Bernice Harrison, Irish Times
`Another treat for fans of this superb storyteller... a terrific read.'

Sunday Express
`Deft and wise prose ... [Tyler's] skill at turning everyday
occurrences into amazing storytelling gets better and better'

Sunday Times
Another of the author's unceasingly perceptive inquires into what
makes us tick'

Customer Reviews

Wonderful character observation
An airport lounge filled with two sets of people. There is an excitable bunch, jostling for position with a video camera. These are the All-Americans. And a quiet group of three, waiting patiently in the background. These are the Iranian-Americans. Two little baby girls arrive from Korea, for adoption with these two very different families, and a strange but beautiful friendship begins.

The characters in this book are so real you feel you know them. There is the woman who is so afraid to be politically incorrect that she ends up putting her foot in everything. There is the reserved elderly Iranian lady who is such a keen observer of life that she fails to really take part in it. There are the two little children, being brought up in very different ways and expected to get along because of their cultural background. There are so many wonderful characters, all of whom mean well, and their very well-meaning gets them into difficulty with each other.

It is a charming, well paced, beautifully told story of alienation and integration, of tactlessness and diplomacy, of needs and feelings. I loved it.

Insightful story...
My second Anne Tyler and whilst I enjoyed the story I did have slight reservations.

I liked the discussions about what it means to be American and what it means to be foreign in another country. They made me laugh and smile and I thought that makes Anne Tyler particularly insightful - she is an American herself but has clearly read situations and can see how Americans might be perceived abroad.

My reservations would be that in parts it seemed a bit implausible. Yes, ok, it's fiction but there were, for me, a few over-stretches of the imagination.

Will not be recommending
This was my first Anne Taylor novel and unfortunately I have to agree with a couple of other reviews in that this book was quite boring.

My favorite character was Maryam, she was a very interesting Iranian lady who had come over to America as part of an arranged marriage. Her role in the book was mother to Sami, who along with his wife Ziba adopted a Korean baby Susan-june. The other couple in the book Bitsy and Brad, who also adopted a Korean baby were very mundane, although Bitsy did have a bit of a flare, organising parites and binky throw aways however in the most part these characters were very flat.

The main focus was the adoption of the two Korean babies, from the moment they arrive in the country until there, sorry lost count, say 4th arrival party.

There is light at the end of the tunnel as we are allowed a brief glance at Maryam's life, I think this saved the book.