American Dirt
By Jeanine Cummins
Published 2018
Read Dec 2025
This book was nominated for a slot on this reader’s book club schedule three times before it was accepted as part of the 2025-2026 schedule. This reader did not vote for the book the first two times it was nominated due to the controversy that surrounded the book—should a non-Mexican author write this book. The third time it was offered, this reader did vote for it for two reasons. First, the person who nominated it thought it was well written and well worth reading. Second, a comment from this person was very compelling “If I read her account in the newspaper, I would not believe it. Reading it through her skillful telling made it real, and the more haunting. I have never felt the same about refugees since I read it.” Having now read the book, this reader agrees with her statements.
The refugees this book follows are fully middle to upper-middle class. The protagonist owns a bookstore. Her husband was a journalist. Her mother had money in the bank. The protagonist meets and befriends a man who comes into her bookstore and with whom she has interesting conversations. It turns out that this man is head of an up-and-coming drug cartel who is wreaking deadly havoc in the city as it asserts itself to become the dominant cartel. The protagonist’s husband publishes an article about this man and cartel, and the family becomes a target of the cartel leader. All of the protagonist’s family members except her son are killed during a family celebration. She and her son survive when they are in the house in a bathroom and go undetected during the slaughter. The rest of the story follows the protagonist and son as they slowly make their way to the United States, hoping to get to relatives in Colorado.
This reader was very engaged by the book. The characters were well developed and believable. The protagonist makes both good decisions and bad ones; the young son behaves ways one would expect from a young boy. The descriptions of getting on and off the train they ride are done very well—this reader felt fear along with the refugees as they made these moves.
This reader does not believe that only “true members of the community” can write about a community or its members. Certainly, being a “member of the community” may make writing about that community easier. However, imposing this restriction would limit what is written and so what we can read—historical novels couldn’t be written for instance, as the authors were not alive when the action occurred. What Massie Knew, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Anna Karenina are examples of novels that couldn’t exist since male authors wrote about female protagonists. Etc etc. Perhaps the real issue in this case was how the book was marketed. In the case of American Dirt, somewhat like the situation in Yellowface, the publisher put a tremendous amount of effort into marketing the book to ensure it’s seen as a hit. This is not an uncommon situation as is evidenced by books that are “highly anticipated” for some time prior to their publication. Getting this kind of attention for newcomers, especially those without agents well connected to big publishing firms, is extremely difficult. This is frankly true for probably 90+% of aspiring writers but the barriers for diverse authors may be especially high. Hopefully blogs like this one, book discussion groups, and readers of all sorts can spread the word about books that are worthy of reaching a larger audience will play a role in getting less heavily marketed books the attention they deserve and help overcome criticism like that received by this author and this book.
In summary, get past the criticisms you may have heard about this book and read it. It will be well worth your time.
MarshaReads.com 