The blurb at the back says it all. This is the story of a horrific journey, undertaken by a young mother escaping a deadly cartel. What she is escaping from is clear from the scant details given. She ran a bookshop, was married to a journalist, and now she has lost it all. In a moment her life changes.
On her journey, she straps a machete to her leg, and leaps onto the roof of high speed trains, with her small son. Her goal in sanctuary in the United States.
The accolades are there. John Grisham says he turned its pages faster than anything else in a long time. Stephen King calls it “one hell of a novel”. One balks a little at Tracey Chevalier (historical novelist, Girl with the Pearl Earring) calling it “essential reading”. Don Winslow goes too far, calling it a Grapes of Wrath for our times.
This is ironical, coming from a man whose own trilogy on the drug wars and cartels in America has been richly appreciated. For Jeanine Cummins is no John Steinbeck and comparing her to a great literary figure actually does her a disservice.
Oprah Winfrey chose it as her Book of the Month, only to set off a debate about its merits, since she is definitely an influencer whose choices lead to publishing The answer seems to be no.
What Cummins has written is a fast-paced thriller on a woman’s headlong dash from Acapulco to El Norte, which is what the Border is called, small child in tow.
So far her life has been sheltered and comprises her husband, child, her bookshop and an extended family. Then her husband writes an in-depth article about the head of a particular cartel and suddenly her life descends into hell, comprising a headlong dash for sanctuary, because the cartel can reach her and her child anywhere in Mexico.
Along the way, she meets others also making the journey, some from Honduras, others from Guatemala and these are real migrants, fleeing violence, persecution or just horrendous living conditions. It is definitely a page-turner of a book, a pacey thriller that never lets up.
More importantly, it gives you an insight into the eternal hunger for freedom that is a characteristic of the human race, the lengths people go to in order to achieve it, and the value placed upon it.
Against the present anti-immigrant sentiment prevailing all over the world, American Dirt is in tune with the times. But it is, first and foremost, popular writing with an eye for cinematic detail that becomes a little annoying at times.
You can just see the story being snapped up by film-makers and the author is both mindful of this revenue stream and helpful in terms of her own writing style.
There is already quite a lot of criticism of the author’s motives, especially when filtered through the prism of cultural appropriation. Most immigrants to the US, especially those landing up as undocumented workers using coyotes to get them through no-man’s land, come from countries other than Mexico.
Their stories are horrendous enough not to require any embellishment, like Lydia’s. But again, why can’t authors make any story their own, tell it their own way? The jury still seems out on this argument.
