Book Review: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Book: 10/100

Rating: 3.5/5

Summary: Lydia Perez lives in Acapulco, Mexico. She runs a bookstore, has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband, Sebastian, who is a journalist. While Acapulco is feeling the increased presence of drug cartels, Lydia and her family still live a relatively comfortable life.

One day, at her bookstore, a man comes in to browse and ends up purchasing two of Lydia's all time favourite books. Javier is charming, erudite, and unknown to Lydia is the head of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over her city. When Lydia's husband's tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Thoughts: This book was a tough one to read and then later review given the latest controversy surrounding it.

I do like books that are about the resiliency of the human spirit, and this is for sure one of them. I found at times the writing was a bit flowery and I had a hard time envisioning the setting, but ultimately it's a story about how far a mother would go to protect her child, as well as showing what many immigrants go through trying to make it to the United States.

There is a lot of conversation going around about this book. The main gist of controversy is that Jeanine Cummins is a white woman who wrote a story (and was offered a lot of money for it) about Mexicans, while Mexican authors struggle to get recognition and story pick-up in the publishing industry, and that her portrayal of immigration in Mexico was sensationalized and cliched.

I'm a privileged, straight white female so I recognize I need to take a backseat to this conversation, and listen to all perspectives surrounding the issue. In some ways, I see the issue from both sides: I agree with the criticisms above, and on the other hand, this book clearly has a HUGE platform (Oprah just recently announced it as her book club pick) and has the potential to shine some light on the issue of immigration and hopefully inspire empathy among readers. However, I can see how problematic and frustrating it can be to see someone write a story that is very personal to you, and that person not having any direct relationship to that story.

For me personally, this whole American Dirt controversy has made me reflect on being more intentional with the books I read, and especially reading more books by owned voices. Over the next few weeks, I hope to compile a list of books that are written by the Latinx community and share ones that more authentically tell the story of Mexican life as well as immigration.