5 Star Review: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

I have another 5 star quality book to recommend -  just my 4th of the year - American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.  This is not an easy book to read, nor a fun one, but it was incredibly, incredibly powerful.  This book grabbed me from the first page, and didn't let go until I finished. 

This novel starts with Lydia and her young son Luca being the only two survivors of a massacre of their whole family by a drug cartel in Acapulco, driving them from the middle class life they had previously enjoyed in Mexico to a life they never imagined as migrants, just trying to survive and to escape to America. Both their story, and the stories they hear from the various people they meet along the way, give a very human face to the issue of migration/illegal immigration, and makes you think and feel viscerally the desperation that causes people to make the choice for the hope of a better life.

I had heard a lot of good things about this book before it even came out, and in fact included it on my list of anticipated books of 2020.  (Side note:  now that I've read it, I have read every single book on that list - go me!)  But then, a whole controversy cropped up around the book, which made me wonder if I should read it or not.  As far as I can tell, the complaints boiled down to a few things.  First, some people complained that the author is a white appearing woman of part Irish/part Puerto Rican descent, and that she shouldn't be the one telling this story.  But upon thinking about it, since when does one have to personally experienced that which they are writing about, unless the book in question is fiction?  A related complaint was that she got a big publishing contract, while many Mexican or other international or immigrant authors telling similar stories do not.  But how is this the author's fault?  And if she can raise awareness of the issues in this book, and perhaps bring people to seek out other books by people who may have personally experienced some of the things described in the book, isn't that a good thing?  Finally, some people criticized the book as "torture porn," which I definitely disagree with.  This book certainly describes Lydia and Luca's experiences, and those of the other people in the book that they encounter, in a way that is harrowing.  Literally the entire time I was reading this book, I felt so anxious that I felt a strained feeling in my chest - but it definitely was not in a way that seemed like it was exploitative or for shock or titillation.

Anyway, I'm so glad that I finally decided to read this book, because it is by far the most powerful book I have read this year, and a book that I will think about for a long, long time.  So well written and so incredibly emotionally affecting.