I Enjoyed "American Dirt"

[erpowers]

I just finished listening to the audiobook version of American Dirt and unlike some of the author's critics I enjoyed listening to the book. I would not consider myself to be an elite literary critic, but I thought the book was well written and had a great compelling story. I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a good read. The story seemed believable, interesting, emotional, and gripping. The author earned all the accolades she received for this book.

[randr]

1. A tale that makes it all too real

[txwhitedove]

2. Thanks for rec. Just checked timely subject and now intrigued.

[Hortensis]

3. A VERY good read, and most would find it very informative.

When we lived in SoCal, had friends (Mexican/Mexican American and not) who lived on both sides of the border, and visited northern/Baja Mexico often, no one imagined the takeover of the entire wonderful nation by organized crime. There already, and we learned later already accelerating, but no more foreseeable by ordinary people than the takeover of Germany by the Nazis before it was happening. Or that the migration north, always dangerous, would become the vicious criminal industry described in many accounts, including American Dirt.

[cbabe]

4. 'American Dirt' Isn't Just Bad -- Its Best Parts Are Cribbed From Latino Writers

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/american-dirt-book_n_5e2a11e8c5b6779e9c2fd79f

'American Dirt' Isn't Just Bad — Its Best Parts Are Cribbed From Latino Writers

Plenty of authors have written authentic accounts of Mexico. But they weren't Oprah's Book Club pick.

By
David J. Schmidt
Jan 24, 2020, 02:07 PM EST
|Updated Feb 6, 2020

When I first read a scene about a young boy being crushed to death by a garbage truck in the new novel “American Dirt,” it made me queasy. Not because of its graphic depiction, or because the author, Jeanine Cummins, is not from Mexico, where the novel is set. What bothered me was the deja vu.

I had read this scene before, in Luis Alberto Urrea’s “By the Lake of Sleeping Children,” a nonfiction book that draws from Urrea’s years of humanitarian relief work in the most marginal communities of Tijuana.

…

Cummins is not a person familiar with Mexico. She describes an imaginary country where people put sour cream on their street tacos, dress their chicken with BBQ sauce rather than mole, eat black licorice drops rather than mazapán, and fear the Bogeyman rather than El Coco. “American Dirt” is also riddled with linguistic gaffes, including a character thinking of her own mother as abuela (grandma).

…more…

(This controversy reminds me of the white teacher Rachel Dolezal and her claim she ‘felt’ black…. Discussion of plagiarism claims, cultural appropriation, really bad editing, etc….?)

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

5. Holy cow

I hadn't even finished the first paragraph of the article you quote, and I knew when I saw "crushed to death by a garbage truck" that the original author was Urrea. It had been so long since I read it (1999? 2000?) that I didn't remember the title, but I've remembered that scene for these years since. That was a nonfiction book, so I'm willing to give some leeway to a fiction writer for that one...

But only if she acknowledged him as a source.

[erpowers]

6. Did You Read the Book?

I had heard the criticisms of the book before I read it. The criticisms are the main reason I read the book (listened to the audiobook). I still liked the book. I think the criticisms have been too harsh. If cribbing from other authors was a reason not to read books, we would not have very many books to read. We would most likely not even be able to read William Shakespeare. Shakespeare has been accused of cribbing his ideas and stories from other authors. That does not mean he was not a good writer and that his works should not be read.

[Native]

7. I listened to the book as well. Didn't read about the criticism until I'd finished it.