American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Since it published earlier this year, American Dirt has been mired in controversy. The novel by Jeanine Cummins led to a bidding war amongst major publishing houses and initially garnered glowing reviews. It was even chosen by Oprah to be part of her famous book club. The shimmering reception quickly gave way to harsh criticisms. Many argue that Cummins, a white woman, has no right to present a story about Mexican refugees, especially when the voices of Latinx authors who have lived this story have been consistently underrepresented or outright stifled by publishers. This controversy has forced the publishing industry to take a critical look at the way they acquire, print, and promote books, a conversation that has grown beyond even this one particular novel. Still, the question remains. Is American Dirt any good? Determined to draw my own conclusions about the novel, I decided to give it a listen.

American Dirt begins with a literal bang. Lydia clutches her eight-year-old son Luca from behind the shower curtain of the bathroom. The pair is immobilized by fear as gunshots ring throughout the house, murdering their entire family. If they make even the slightest move or sound, their fate will be the same. What started as a day of celebration with extended family has shifted to one of tragedy and grief. Sitting there listening to the sound of her family's slaughter, Lydia knows exactly what precipitated this violence. Her husband, a reporter, recently published an article about the notorious head of a Mexican drug cartel. This is clearly an act of revenge, a kind of tic for tac. When the sicarios finally leave, the house is filled with a silence that only comes from the absence of life. Lydia and Luca are the only surviving members of the family and the only lives preventing the jefe from finalizing his revenge. Lydia knows what she must do. She must escape the country and seek refuge in a place where she can't be found.

I think that it is best to critique American Dirt on two levels. One based purely on the novel itself and the second being a larger reflection on the controversy that has surfaced because of it. Jeanine Cummins sets her immigrant story within a thriller. Yes, there are obvious commentaries about the plight of refugees and their reasons for undertaking such a perilous journey, but at its heart, the novel is a thriller. As such, it is the kind of book that keeps you reading, unable to look away (or in my case stop listening) until you've finished the entire thing. Cummins deserves credit for presenting a story about refugees in a way that grabs the reader's attention and forces them to face the harsh realities that it presents. Whatever your thoughts about the novel, I think it is important to recognize that this is a story that often is untold and that the book's success means that many people will connect and be exposed to a story that they would otherwise be ignorant or indifferent to. At its best, American Dirt humanizes immigrants in a way that seeing throngs of people detained on the news fails to.

All that considered, I found many flaws to the narrative itself that I couldn't ignore. Luca is an incredibly bright child who is imbued with knowledge that felt like it was more in service of advancing the plot than developing his character. The child has an almost savant-like predisposition to understanding maps and sensing direction. Cummins attempts to present this as a way for us to connect with Luca as if to say, " Look at how bright this kid is. He deserves our admiration." In reality, his predisposition to direction was more in service of helping the family navigate their way to freedom, a trait that I found to be a bit too convenient to be believable. There is also the fact that Lydia comes from a family of financial privilege. She isn't escaping poverty and violence in search of better opportunity. She has already been afforded that opportunity, even drawing on her sizable bank account to buy safe passage at several points in the book. These two particular characteristics aided in the pace of the novel, but detracted from the sense of reality.

Finally we come to the controversy of American Dirt. There are many criticisms to be made about the novel, but I don't think the flaws of the book itself warrant any kind of cancelation or hate. They simply make it a so-so read. Where the real controversy lies is with the publishing industry at large. It is odd that the book by a white woman about Mexican refugees has garnered this kind of acclaim and prominence when many Latinx authors have written about the same topic to little fanfare. The publishing system in place tilts the scales in favor of white creators. I think that American Dirt has simply brought this conversation to a boiling point that has made more people take notice of this problem. What really matters now is what we and the people in power choose to do next. Publishers must take a hard look at how they can diversify the authors and content that they present. They must do more to give voices to a variety of authors who present a variety of stories. We as readers, in turn, must support these voices. Support the places and publishers who value diversity by publishing and selling books by diverse authors. Buy the books by these authors and share these stories through whatever means you have available. At the end of the day, American Dirt will not be remembered as a great work of literature, but it just might be remembered for the movement and change that it inspired.

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2020, 26)


This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 and is filed under ,,,,,,,,,,,,. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.

26 Responses to “American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins”

  1. Oh right, this one, yes I read about the controversy

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    1. It certainly captured the attention of the book world at the start of the year!

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  2. I saw a little of the controversy and can appreciate the simmering feelings to see a so-so book get acclaim when OwnVoices writers get overlooked at the submission stage by publishers for a similar story. I can also spare some pity that this was written as a thriller and ended up a controversial social commentary because of the way it was marketed.
    Hopefully, the uproar will do good and open publishing eyes.

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    1. I think it really is a case of the publisher over-promising on what the book actually is. They really invited all the controversy that has followed.

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  3. The drama around this book was massive, but it sounds like you went in with an open mind and made an effort to be objective. I guess what you said there at the end, about it prompting a bit of a movement is a positive thing, but this is not the first time we have seen this happen in the book community. Publishers need to try harder and make better choices.

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    1. We have to help publishers reach that decision. We need to feature OwnVoices stories on our blogs and social media and buy them too. Otherwise I fear this will end up being a case where the publishers respond with words and then go back to doing things the way they always have.

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  4. Yeah, I'm still not sure if I want to read this one or not. The controversy has turned me off of it, but I'm still curious about it, so we'll see ...

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    1. Don't let the controversy deter you from reading it if you are interested. You just need to go into it with an open mind.

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  5. There has been a lot of uproar about this one. Not sure it's the read for me, but you never know. :)

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    1. I would just urge you to come to your own conclusions about this one. That being said, I didn't think it was a great book so take it for what it's worth lol.

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  6. I like the way in which you reviewed this and completely agree the fault lies with the publishing industry as a whole. I have no issue with her writing a thriller and bringing light to this subject. It is still a platform to enlighten and storytellers do it best. I have this in my tbr pile and hope to read it.

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    1. Thank you. I definitely understand the controversy, even the one about the author herself, but I think it is important to read and form your own opinion.

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  7. I think what made people so angry to begin with is that for a very long time the author identified herself as a white woman, and only when it came time to do the actual publicity for the book, she began identifying herself as Latina. I find fault with that big-time. I think both she and publishing in general are to blame here.

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    1. I'm not as familiar with that part of the controversy. I've seen the article she wrote talking about not being able to completely understand the plight of POC because of her "whiteness", but in the same article she also writes of being from Puerto Rican descent. That being said, she was at best clumsy with how she approached her own race, or at the very worst used race to promote and sell her book.

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    2. That's exactly it, I think. Whatever her intentions were, it really came across to people that she used race to promote the book, when she previously had not claimed that part of her heritage at all. And normally that would be fine, people are allowed to claim whatever parts of their heritage they want and identify however they want. But the sudden change of being white to being Puerto Rican was very suspicious.

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    3. Yeah, that's not cool on her part. I wonder if she'll have trouble publishing again after all of this.

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    4. I wonder the same. I have seen numerous readers of Mexican descent who are also quite angry about her portrayal of refugees/asylum seekers. She has pissed off a good many people, it seems like.

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    5. I guess only time will tell. She's really painted herself into a corner with this one.

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  8. Ethan, what a fantastic review. I'd read of the controversy, but hadn't read the book. And most likely won't at this point. I appreciate your well written views.

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    1. Thanks. I tried to approach it with a balanced perspective. In the end, the book just wasn't my favorite.

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  9. I heard a little about the controversy and I really don't get it. Authors routinely write about characters that aren't like them and I haven't heard much said about it before. I don't have a problem with an author writing about characters that are nothing like them.

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    1. From everything I've seen and read, both the author and more so the publisher really were at fault for the way they promoted this story. I'd recommend watching Oprah's bookclub on AppleTV+ if you have access. She interviewed the author, publisher, and other Latinx authors to gain a full perspective on the issue. It was very enlightening.

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  10. Fantastic review. I read it back in January, right after all the controversy hit. I liked it, but didn't love it.

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    1. Thanks. I think my reaction is pretty similar to yours. I enjoyed it as I read it, but I don't see it really holding up beyond the initial read.

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  11. It's unfortunate that the story wasn't as good as you anticipated, but hopefully the controversy it sparked will help make some changes in the industry.

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    1. Only time will tell at this point. I'm hopeful some kind of change will come from all of this!

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