The novel is a fast-frothing thriller about Lydia, a bourgeois Mexican bookseller, and her son Luca, who flee to … American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins has been the most talked about novel of the new decade so far (though keep in mind that I’m writing this in January 2020), for both good reasons and bad. I really appreciate your suggestions of other, similar books to read as well as the links to four critics. Parul Segal wrote a review of it Furthermore, Cummins throws in a wide range of stereotypically Mexican/Mexican-ish things. For example, there’s much specificity in discussing conditions on La Bestia, a freight train, and the impact of Programa Frontera Sur, a joint U.S.-Mexican funded initiative to keep migrants off the train. Of course, the sad fact is that literature, including stuff taught in schools, is rife with inaccuracies and inaccurate portrayals of places or people. The first link had some book suggestions. Thank you! I kept hearing about all the controversy surrounding this book but didn’t have time to read any articles until today, so yours is the first that I’ve read. For example, they have the responsibility to ensure that it’s not full of stereotypes or otherwise exploitative. But the outsized carnage in the novel’s opening pages gives Lydia and Luca an unequivocal answer. So, what’s the deal, and should you read this novel? She runs a bookstore. This guide refers to the first US edition. What do you think the author means by it? American Dirt is very much a thriller in that there’s plenty of chases, suspense and a lot of action in the novel. Thanks for reading! After I wrote a piece criticizing American Dirt, Oprah invited me to appear on Oprah's Book Club for a candid conversation with her and author Jeanine Cummins. Before the slaughter, Lydia Quixano Pérez is a bookseller in Acapulco, mother to Luca and wife to journalist Sebastián. My OPINION Unfortunately, American Dirt is guilty of both these things. 50 Best Books About Libraries or Librarians, 15 Best Websites for Free Audiobooks Online (Updated for 2021), Every 2021 Book to Movie & TV Series Adaptation, 100 Best Book Club Books of All Time (By Year), The Best Book Club Books of 2021 (Anticipated). American Dirt is a book that tells a well-paced story that is timely and accessible. This Study Guide consists of approximately 55 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of American Dirt. It dusts American Dirt with a sheen of sensationalist unreality that obscures rather than illuminates the quotidian terrors that beat at the heart of this book. Good book club reads are thought-provoking and lend itself to in-depth discussions. Obviously, a book can be two things at once. There are excellent food options, beautiful buildings from the 1500s, and beautiful beaches. I don’t doubt that there were many people with only pure intentions in the publishing process. There were many missed opportunities through out the book where she could elaborate. And it's harmful, appropriating, inaccurate, … The opening is tense, frightening and focuses on the emotions of a young boy and his mum hiding in the shower and thus avoiding murder. I don’t question Jeanine’s freedom of expression, I just wished this book was well researched. What an excellent,and balanced piece this is! Free UK p&p over £15. It’s just “skin,” okay? There are few places on the planet more deadly to be a journalist, and the integrity that attracted Lydia to Sebastián terrifies her now that they have a child – it seems “sanctimonious, selfish”. I will pass on American Dirt for that reason alone. Unreal books about REAL life circumstance the privileged cannot even begin to ingest let alone digest, crates the perfect taste to wet the appetite for more. Another example of the lack of authenticity that has been pointed out by a reviewer on Amazon. Today we know, that such a submarine cannot be build using the materials he described. I would have wondered about the accuracy in general, but I wouldn’t know one way or another since I am neither from Mexico or of Mexican heritage. Overview. Some books, like Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, are blatantly problematic. Our protagonist Lydia is especially saintly, and yet also kind of stupid. But these stories all end up shaping our perceptions nonetheless, so it seems like we should be striving for something better. However, it’s also a book that has many issues and inaccuracies. On La Bestia, they meet Lorenzo, a man who was part of Los Jardineros and recognizes Lydia as a target they're after, but Lorenzo claims that he is fleeing that lifestyle. 16 days after departing Acapulco, Lydia and Luca cross the border into the United States, but they still have a long trek ahead. All the elements are in place for a slick cartel thriller: a relentless villain; an improbable attraction; a clock-ticking chase to safety; a conveniently precocious child (Luca has an “intrinsic sense of his position on the globe, like a human GPS, pinging his way through the universe”). Meanwhile, Lydia’s son Luca is eight years old but says stuff like “your help would be a significant advantage” when asking for help. It is, after all, a work of fiction. American Dirt is at its best when it knowingly explores the insulations, obligations and tenuousness of privilege. That said, I think that comes with it the burden of doing the work to portray other cultures or people accurately and responsibly. Parts of the novel contain many details which clearly are the result of diligent research. And the book has been tagged as a fiction, domestic fiction, thriller. In terms of the cultural inaccuracies, I’m not from Mexico or of Mexican heritage so I can’t really assess how accurate the depiction of Mexico is. Carlos's wife Meredith puts them in a van pretending to be with a group of American missionaries to get to Mexico City. (If a publisher is worried about that burden, finding writers that have first-hand experience is always an option!). “American Dirt” seemed poised to become one of this year’s biggest, buzziest books. “Are they just drive-by Samaritans?” a local church member asks. But stuff like this really does reinforce the idea that this is just a big publishing house capitalizing on and exploiting the pain of immigrants without any genuine concern for their plight. There seems to be a common commentary that it paints Mexico as only being overrun with drugs, crime or corruption and not much else. American Dirt is the first book to ever score a perfect 5-stars in BookBrowse's early reader program, First Impressions--and we've reviewed more than 600 books to date! For a novel that sets out so earnestly to challenge the insular nationalism that leads the US‑Mexico border to feel like some kind of moral boundary, American Dirt may, despite or because of its manifest good intentions, accidentally reinforce the very kind of absolutist reasoning that keeps such myths alive. Links 2 & 3 seem to take me to the same article? Soledad is pregnant by rape. American Dirt is very much a thriller in that there’s plenty of chases, suspense and a lot of action in the novel. People need to be allowed to write about cultures they are not a part of, or review books from heritages that are not their own. Many, many of you will be kidnapped, tortured, trafficked or ransomed … every single one of you will be robbed.” American Dirt turns each of these grim prognostications into object lessons, populated with characters who are vectors and vessels for instructional trauma. In American Dirt, after her journalist husband runs afoul of cartel boss Javier Fuentes, Lydia’s entire family is murdered with the exception of her young son, Luca. They soon find out Lorenzo has hired the same coyote and will be making the two-day journey with them, along with 8 others. Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2020 Jeanine Cummins' American Dirt, a novel about a Mexican bookseller who has to escape cartel-related violence with her son, fleeing to the US. I do think there is some irresponsible actions of promoting this book because the US main stream media publishes so many false statements about Mexico and this book and this book does the same. 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