Episode 21 – American Dirt [Oprah’s Book Club]

“I couldn’t put this down. I’ll never stop thinking about it’, reads a review of this title. I can’t agree more.

The gorgeous book I am going to talk about today is ‘American Dirt’, by Jeanine Cummins

Being part of Oprah’s book club, this book soon gained popularity and with it, controversy around its stereotypical depictions.

The novel about the Mexican mother and her young son fleeing to the US border by an American author with an ‘ intent to shine the spotlight on tragedies facing immigrants’, has received much flak by Mexican American authors who have criticized the seemingly well intentioned novel for the not so flattering stereotypical depictions of the crime scene and Mexico drug cartels.

And I hear where they come from.

American Dirt tells this story of Lydia Perez, a middle class Mexican book seller with a pretty perfect life – a loving husband, family and son until a man walks in to her book store. Seemingly erudite and conversant, she soon is enraptured by how much they share and in finding a true friend when she discovers he is in reality the drug cartel lord that her journalist husband has been trying to expose.

The narrative follows the journey as she flees her town with her 8 year old son after the drug cartel violently attacks a quinceanera she is attending after killing the rest of her family.

In their attempt at outrunning the cartel, Lydia and her son soon find themselves making the treacherous journey to US on a freight train at the mercy of fate, and some good fellow immigrants along the way as they fight their way to the US border.

Whilst as an outsider I cannot necessarily comment on the accuracy of the portrayal, the story was powerfully moving. The heartbreakingly thrilling journey escaping from the Los Jardineros cartel by being strapped on top of a moving train is a page turner.

Cummins has managed to come up with a gripping and compelling narrative – of characters we meet along the journey, their disappointments and heart wrenching background stories.

Critics have called this ‘ harmful and appropriating melodrama’ which resonated. I have been in conversations with well-intentioned outsiders, trying hard not to step into jingoism in defending my country whilst at the same time blazing red at questions aimed at knowing whether I live in a dump as portrayed in SlumDog Millionaire.

It is a sensitive issue and there is a fine line between the white and the black.

Cummins mentioned in an interview, “migrants at the Mexican border were being portrayed as ‘a faceless brown mass.’ She said she wanted to give these people a face.”

So while the criticism may be valid, the relevance of the story isn’t diminished. It is a riveting tale of humanity and dreams of a better future.

On the border wall of Tijuana [US-Mexican border], the book reads, there is wonderful piece of graffiti.

It reads: “On this side, too, there are dreams”