A review by oliviahoffmann
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

4.0

Not having an idea of what this book was about before picking it up, I really enjoyed it. I thought the writing was beautiful and got attached to a number of the characters. I found the commentary on motherhood and grief really powerful. After finishing it, I read a bit about the controversy surrounding it and felt a bit conflicted. I appreciated that the author spoke to the fact (in the afterword) that she knew this was a dicey topic to write about as a non-Mexican LatinX woman, but that she tried to do so in a way that painted the humanity of the immigrant story rather than the numbers and statistics normally portrayed. I thought she succeeded in that in a thought-provoking way, but want to read more about the presence of this book and how its content may seem appropriated to many.