Before I read American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, I was aware of the controversy surrounding the novel. Indeed, this was what made me keen to read it for myself.
American Dirt tells a gripping story from page one. It is written in a cinematic style and its pace is that of a thriller. Oprah Winfrey endorsed the book and publishers fought over it. After initial rave reviews, the book was criticised for an inauthentic depiction of Mexican characters by a non-Mexican author.
American Dirt tells the story of Lydia, married to an investigative journalist. Lydia owns a bookshop in Acapulco and has an eight year old son, Luca. She and her son survive the murder of her extended family and begin a perilous journey through Mexico to the United States of America.
As I drove and listened to the audiobook over several long road trips, I entered the world of the migrants and gained some understanding of the courage they showed to leave all they knew behind them for an uncertain future including the ever-present possibility of losing their lives.
The immediacy of their experience is a major achievement of the book. The visceral and lingering descriptions of Lydia and Luca’s physical and emotional reactions to the dangers they faced gripped me throughout.
At the end of the recording, Jeanine Cummins states that her aim was to show migrants as individuals, each with their own story, and to move readers to understand the plight of refugees whether they be fleeing Mexico or Africa or Syria or any other country where they fear for their lives.
This message definitely comes through but, since reading critical reviews of American Dirt, I have been thinking about the wider issues of the voices of minorities in literature and their representation in the publishing industry.
Should such stories be told only by writers who have lived the experience and the culture? Should the publishing industry have published American Dirt when Mexican authors have written about the same events and experiences and cannot get published?
Read this novel for yourself and see what you think.
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| Title: American Dirt Author” Jeanine Cummins Publisher: Tinder Press Date: 2019 Pages: 455 ISBN: 978 1 4722 6141 0 |