Yearly Archives: 2008

Review: Digging to America

Reading

I don’t remember the title of the first book I read in which nothing happened, but I remember being surprised that 1) Nothing happened and 2) I enjoyed it. It may very well have been an Anne Tyler book.

In Anne Tyler’s latest book, Digging to America, nothing happens. Well, that’s not entirely true. What I mean is nothing but life happens. There is no mystery, no great climax, no real plot to speak of. And that’s ok. Anne Tyler’s gift is not necessarily plot heavy books, but books with intricate character studies.

I’ve been an Anne Tyler fan since I read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant back in the 1980’s and have read 15 of her 17 novels. Although I didn’t realize it until today, all of Ms Tyler’s books are mostly character studies, and therefore it is the characters I mostly remember from her novels. I loved the way Ms Tyler wrote about quirky characters and I often joked that my in-laws would make great characters in an Anne Tyler novel.

Digging to America is about two very different families that meet at an airport while waiting to meet their adopted daughters from Korea. The story revolves around the two families through the next five years: their evolving friendship, occasional bitterness, a loss, a romance and not a little misunderstanding.

Brad and Bitsy Donaldson are well-meaning, politically correct suburbanites. Sami and Ziba Yazdan are Iranian-Americans, adapting to American culture, while occasionally shaking their heads at Americans’ behaviors. Each family has extended families whose characters are as colorful as anyone in real life.

The book alternates between the two families’ points of view, each chapter providing a different character to speak, so the reader gets to be “in the head” of several characters in the novel.

If you are looking for a book with an intricate plot, I’d pass this one by, but if you want a cozy book in which the characters are highly developed, give Digging to America a go.

RQ-209S

Memories, ,

No, it’s not the name of a robot from a Star Wars parody. It’s the model number of the Panasonic tape recorder I got for my 13th birthday.

My Aunt Alvera and Uncle Ray had a neighbor who worked for Panasonic. He could get electronics cheaper than retail, so offered to obtain a tape recorder for me. I was to look at a catalog and pick out the one I wanted. I don’t remember why I chose the one I chose, but the model number has stuck with me for almost 40 years.

I used this tape recorder to interview my younger brother one morning while our parents slept. I used this tape recorder to record tapes to my grandparents in Wisconsin and to play the ones they sent us. I used this tape recorder to record tapes for Jeremy and to listen to the ones his family sent me. I used this to secretly record conversations on long trips in the car and then play them back for laughs.

When Mom and I were sorting her attic treasures I reached into a box and felt something hard. I grabbed it and began to pull it out of the box. Before I saw what was in my hand I shouted, “RQ-209s! I’ve found RQ-209s!”

Sure enough, I held my long-lost tape recorder. I pushed the play button and heard a whirring noise, but nothing turned. I checked the battery compartment and found four 10 year old batteries. I guess I’d found this within the past 10 years and tried it out. I sort of remembered that it didn’t work anymore, but decided to take it home anyway.

I was right, even with fresh batteries, the wheels don’t turn. I suppose it could be the belt and I could purchase one for under $5 on the Internet, but what’s the point? I lost the microphone (this model doesn’t have an embedded microphone) and the AV cord. I’ll probably toss it in the trash before too long, or I could list it on Ebay.

But for now I’ll just look at it — one of my first pieces of technology. It makes me happy just to see it sitting there.

Arithmetic Workbook and other memorable phrases

Memories, , ,

Another thing I found when helping my mom sort out her attic was a tape my brother, Kevin, and I made in 1969. I was 13 and he was 6. I’d recently acquired a tape recorder and was practicing my interview skills.

Transcript:

Dona: Hello
Kevin: Hello
D: What’s your favorite subject in school?
K:Um. [unintelligible]
D: No, first — What school do you go to?
K: Highland School
D: What’s your teacher’s name?
K: Mrs. Varisco
D: What grade are you in?
K: First
D: What’s your favorite subject?
K: [Intake of breath] — What’s– Um — No — Ah — Recess!
D: No! Your favorite subject.
K: Uh
D: Like favorite um reading or math or stuff like that.
K: Math? We don’t got math.
D: Math – yeah, don’t you have arithmetic?
K: Arithmetic Workbook
D: Oh, OK. Um — What do you like to do at home?
K: Play with the tape recorder.
D: Oh, tape recorder? Who has a tape recorder in your house?
K: Dona! I’m talking on it.
D: Oh. Um — What else do you like to do at home? Do you help your mommy?
K: Sometimes
D: Sometimes? Do you help her enough?
K: Mm-huh
D: What do you want for Christmas?
K: [Sigh] Dona! It’s too long to tell and I can’t remember all of ’em.
D: Say a couple things.
K: Battling Tops, Bang Box, [sigh] – um, more Lego Blocks, and all that stuff, other stuff.
D: Lego Blocks? Um — Hot Wheels?
K: Yeah, except we didn’t put that on the… Oh yeah, yeah we did. And hot wheels and all that stuff, all that stuff. I don’t know what you guys are gonna give me.
D: I do
K: You know?
D: Oh yeah, I forgot, I was going to show you what I got Daddy.

Here I turned the tape recorder off, presumably to show Kevin what I got our Dad.

D: How many people are in your family?
K: Four
D: Do you have any animals?
K: One

D: What’s that?
K: A dog. We used to have a cat named Puff
D: Mmmm. What’s the dog’s name?
K: Jock — and um — but — our friends were taking him to the farm — to a farm — and then he — the window was open — ah — so um — just so much as he — Puff could get out — jump out.
D: Mmmm
K: So he jumped out.
D: Mmm. That’s sad isn’t it?
K: Yeah — but he ain’t dead or anything — got ran over because he’s smart enough.
D: Mmm, huh. Well. — Is there any problems you have with your mommy? What do you call your mom?
K: Mrs. Patr[ick]

[tape was turned off before he could finish Patrick, I probably said something about how he doesn’t call his mom by her last name, but it was not recorded.]

D: [Are there any] problems at your house?
K: No, not much.
D: Um — Does anyone get into any fights or anything?
K: Sometimes
D: Hmm?
K: Sometimes!
D: Like – how -, are they real bad?
K: No
D: Hmmm, who fights usually?
K: My mom.
D: And who else?
K: My dad.
D: Do you and your sister ever fight?
K: Sometimes.
D: Very much? Is it very bad when you fight?
K: No
D: Do you fist-fight or just talk-fight?
K: Fist-fight and talk-fight
D: Do your mommy and daddy fist-fight or talk-fight?
K: Both
D: Really? They do? They punch each other?
K: No, talk-fight.
D: Oh, I was kinda worried there. Um — um
K: Dona! I was doing something.
D: If. Um.
K: Um

[Tape recorder was turned off]

D: Well, let’s see now.
K: Well, let’s see now.

[Tape recorder was turned off]

D: Do you know any nursery rhymes?
K: Um, yeah.
D: Tell me some of them.
K: Hey diddle, diddle
The cat and the fiddle
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed
To see such sport
And the dish ran away with the spoon
D: Do you know any Christmas carols?
K: No
D: Oh…
K: ‘Cept Jingle Bells
D: Well, just say a little bit of it
K: Dashing through the snow
On a one-horse open sleigh
[something] spirits rise [someone started snapping at this point]
Laughing all the way
D: Mmmm, huh. Very good! Um, well — Gonna have to stop now, so, um.
K: K. you say g—
D: What’s your favorite… What is your favorite stuff for supper?
K: Um, mmm yum mmm, — I’m thinkin’. Ahh — fish.
D: Fish?
K: Mmm, huh.
D: Oh, well, let’s say goodbye —
K: You say goodbye first
D: Bye. And don’t you dare say “Goodbye Dick” [whispered]
K: Goodbye!
D: Ok. K: Dick!