Review: American Dirt

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I would like to thank #netgalley and #FlatironBooks for the early copy to review. I initially intended to finish this for the publication date and had started it. The beginning immediately drew me into the story and the characters. I was engrossed by the narrow escape for Lydia, a mother and her 8-year-old son Luca from a brutal, mass murder by a cartel who executed their entire family. It is a brutal beginning to a novel.
I was about one-third of the way into it when all the criticism became so insistent and attacks on reviewers, like me were happening. I started to relook at what I was reading and if I was really fully grasping it as I should. Was the right person telling the story? Was the author taking liberties with exploiting Mexican and Central American Heritage that she didn't have the right to do? Was her story accurate? There are many "truths" that could be questioned about this book. Some of these were addressed by the author herself in the notes at the end and some are not. All valid points of view but maybe not all answerable within this story.
I think for me, it initially caused me to put the book down for awhile and give it a little space. My first conclusion is that I think we are holding this to too high a standard for a work that is marketed as fiction, not historical fiction or a memoir. It doesn't mean that it shouldn’t be respectful or try to be factual but certainly that buys the author some license to miss some details. Also, based on the author's notes, I felt that she was intending to use the US-Mexican border as the backdrop to her story but that it was really more loosely a story about immigration in general, from all regions of the world. And in the reading of the book I felt that the characters were the main event. The humanity or lack of humanity in their trip and their love for each other were some of the themes that are universal and spoke loudest within the pages of this story. The journey was the backdrop to tell of the love and resilience of the human spirit after suffering the greatest of losses. I don't think getting lost in the weeds changes the overall message.
I personally have never been further into Mexico than across the border, walking into a border town. I don't know anything about Mexico culturally outside of that and the people that I know personally who are from there. I think I cannot speak to the accuracies of the voices in terms of character portrayal or respect for the heritage. I have other, own voices books next up that are not fictional, about immigration stories. One is about a immigration story about a woman from Guatemala who crosses into the USA and the other is short stories from immigrants from several different countries around the world. I think this will offer the alternate perspective to balance this fictional story and hopefully show me inaccuracies if they are there.
Thanks for the early release.
Overall, I loved the writing and the characters. The story is gripping and page-turning. Loved it!

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