American Dirt

This book was gripping and I'm still digesting my thoughts and feelings. It was very well written and I think it's a story that will stick with me. I was already sympathetic to the plight of migrants and refugees, but this story really paints a vivid, realistic picture of what that journey can be like.

I found this a real struggle to read initially - it did start with a real hiss and a roar but then in my opinion it slowed down! I had to put it down and try again after reading a few different books. It did get easier to read and the story was interesting. It has do many good reviews so I knew I had to finish it.

Dismissing this book because a white American woman is telling a Mexican woman's story is offensive to me as an artist. On the other hand, as an artist, I didn't think the book was very good. But then, I'm not a fan of melodrama, and I suspect that those who are might like this book a lot. Inciting incident: woman's family is slaughtered by a drug cartel in Acapulco. Will she and her 8-year-old son survive on their journey to the US to escape? That's the question presented by the novel, and it doesn't interest me very much.

I got this book as a gift and went in completely blind. I didn't even read the back cover and I had no idea of the controversy surrounding it until I added it to my “reading” list and noticed a huge split in reviews. As I read the reviews, I went into the first few chapters with caution and felt guilty for enjoying the story - I kept waiting for the controversy to become apparent... but that never happened.

So, I'm going to star this PURELY on the writing and story itself. And frankly, it's a damn good book.

I was immediately taken into the story, I could not stop reading. This is a thriller from beginning to end and I was on the edge of my seat for the characters. It's obviously a tough read, a lot of trauma and awful things happen to these characters on their journey. I do feel like the author did a decent job of giving vivid descriptions to invoke emotions without it feeling gross and over-the-top.

As for the criticism, please keep in mind this is A WORK OF FICTION, and at no point does it try to pose as something else. The story is engaging, the characters are interesting and the threat feels real and urgent. It's good writing and it deserves attention for that. If you don't like the politics surrounding the novel, don't read it and pick up something else.

To say a book shouldn't be written because you don't like the content is censorship and just plain silly. If you're on the fence about this one because of the reviews, read it and form your own opinion.


Also, because I haven't seen actual recommendations in the sea of 1-star reviews, if you want true stories about immigration to the US, I've heard the following are decent options:
The Devil's Highway: A True Story
Enrique's Journey
The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail

This book is about all the desperate risks a mother would take to keep her child safe.

That's it.

It happens to be wrapped in a Mexican landscape with a lot of stereotypical crime and violence and desperate people fleeing from it.

The ending was lacking.

And I feel like a shitty person for saying this, but I think Lydia and Luca got off easily compared to the people they ended up travelling with. It's not that I want them to suffer more, it's just that as I turned the final page, I didn't believe the story.

I really like the first 30%. I fell apart a bit after that. Would I recommend it to others? Maybe. It's not a bad book, it just has a bit of an identity crisis halfway through. It's about a mother protecting her kid. If you love those books, go for it. If you want stories about mexican refugees, I sincerely hope there are better books out there.

(And a funny thing: my ignorant ass assumed that "American Dirt" referred to how the US considers Mexicans dirt. But the Danish title directly translates into "The Salt Of The Earth"... So I don't know...)

One of My Tougher Reads

I want to start off by saying that I had a hard time both reading this novel and trying to process my thoughts enough to give it a fair review. I picked it to read because it received such high praise from Stephen King and I am a devoted fan to a fault. This review will not address any of the controversy surrounding “American Dirt,” or its author, and will focus only on how well it tells a story and how well it kept my interest. I will try and keep the politics out as much as possible. That being said let me tell you my impression of Lydia and American Dirt.

Lydia is a middle-class, Mexican wife, mother, and bookstore owner whose entire family minus her young son is murdered by the cartel. She makes friends with the head of a Mexican cartel only to have it end in death for retribution for an article her husband wrote, she decides that the only way to escape with her young son is to join the wave of South and Central American migrants heading for the US. The novel relates in vivid detail her journey which includes a multitude of harrowing experiences for her and those with whom she travels.

I was absolutely absorbed by the first half of the book. I liked and cared about the characters and believed what I was reading. Certain scenes actually had me holding my breath, which is rare. Author Jeanine Cummins is excellent at creating situations of maximum risk and danger.

But there's only so much of that you can take before becoming exhausted. Somewhere around the novel's midpoint, I found myself really wanting it to be over. I'd gotten the point as to how hard and cruel the migrant's journey can be; and I wanted the novel and its characters to progress—somehow to grow—which is essential for any good novel. Instead, author Cummins decided to keep on going from danger to danger and to finally come to a resolution that was neither very clear nor particularly satisfying. I am glad however that the story had an ending and didn't leave me guessing about the safety of the characters.

Furthermore, all the characters seem to have the same basic motivation for coming to the United States: fear. They're all trying to escape whatever it was that made their living situation unbearable. We don't see anyone who's migrating for another reason, which means the novel is somewhat single-layered, which adds to the exhaustion factor. I promised not much talk on the political side but I will say that I enjoyed the Authors note where she explained her personal motivation for writing this novel. While it is popular for book club and the like this book was just not my cup of tea. All in all, a three-star performance and that is being generous.

I know that American Dirt, a story about a woman from Mexico who has to flee her home with her young son, has been controversial. And I have a whole host of thoughts about it, some of them contradictory. So here they are in no particular order:

On a literary level: I found the narrative to be absolutely riveting. It's gripping, and I sprinted through it in a way I haven't in months. I didn't think any of the characters were flat, I thought the villain was well developed, and it had a twisty story that didn't feel too manipulative/cliche. And on the author, the simple fact that a white lady wrote a story about migration isn't inherently bad, otherwise all of fiction would be limited to merely the author's own experiences (more on this below).


Cultural: all of the critiques of the publishing industry, and how a white lady ended up getting the biggest book of the year about migration, seemed pretty fair to me. I didn't feel like it was “trauma porn” like some people have said, but it does feel somehow off. This is heightened when the author shares anecdotes about how her husband was undocumented for a time, and she has a Puerto Rican grandma. It would have been fine for her to say, “these experiences made me realize how different my experience would have been with immigration if I wasn't white, so I wanted to explore that in fiction,” but the way she rolled out the tidbits instead came across like she was trying to claim personal credibility on the issue that she didn't quite have. This also comes across when most (but not all) of the Latina/x reviews I've seen have mentioned that she uses lots of stereotypes. I didn't see that in this, but also I don't know anything about what those stereotypes might be. I will say, a lot of critiques emphasized how she treated the US as a perfect haven for her; especially while America is in the middle of perhaps finally reckoning with its racist history, that feels resonant right now. However, I thought she struck a decent balance of recognizing that the US wasn't always kind to its immigrants, but also she knew it was better than taking her chances with the cartels.


On the whole, I resonated with critiques of the publishing process that led to this book being pushed so hard, but I didn't resonate with the critiques of the book itself as much. I've certainly thought more about how inhumanely we treat immigrants, and how the US has a responsibility to help a region that we've destabilized over and over. And that's a good thing. However, the world shouldn't need white authors to speak to white readers about the experiences of non-white migrants; a more equitable world would let those people have their own microphone. The US is ~60% white today; by the 2040s that number is expected to dip below half. I hope publishing houses will move to better represent the country. A few years ago I saw a reading challenge to aim for 50% of your books each year to be written by people besides white men; it was very eye-opening for me to see how narrow a perspective I was getting across multiple genres (especially if you like sci-fi and fantasy). I encourage all my fellow white readers to try something similar, or at least keep an eye on your proportions. If anyone has recommendations of Latinx literature, I'd be glad to hear it.

I massively enjoyed this book. I found the prose beautiful... I found the story gripping and well written. It really highlighted the potential reasoning as to why people flee their homes. It also makes me understand how bad the cartel issues in Mexico really are.

I felt such kinship with Lydia, especially her love of books haha.

I would definitely recommend this book.

This was by no means the worst book I've ever read (and I don't know if the author deserves the backlash she's received), but I kept finding myself rolling my eyes at certain characters and just not fully bought into how reflective the narrative was of an actual migrant journey through Mexico. Obviously, an important story to tell, but this was just okay for me. Couldn't get behind it.

Wow, what an amazing book! Definitely the best book I have read in a while. It has unusual emotional depth and insight. Beautifully written and a powerful, moving story. I can completely understand why this has been called “the great American novel of our time.” But really it's just a great novel of our time because it tells a story that is international in nature and could probably be representative of the struggles people are facing in many places around the globe.

Excellent book. One that will stick with me for a long time. I realize the amount of privilege I have, as a white woman, born in the US. If you're able to get through this book without those realizations, you have a hardened heart (in my opinion). The challenges this woman has to overcome, and the things she goes through, as well as the people around her... just heart-wrenching.