by Jeanine Cummins (Amazon's #41 Best Book of 2022) ★★★★★
As time went by, this actually rose up the ranks from where I placed it at the halfway point in the year. As I said at the time, this one set off a firestorm earlier this year! American Dirt follows the journey of a mother and her son as they flee Acapulco for the United States after becoming targets of the local cartel. After Oprah put it on her book list, a slew of negative reviews poured in blasting the author for what are some clear flaws in the novel. One of my friends said to me at the time, “Greg, you apparently need to read this for all of us, and then put it in your top 10 books of the year to see the reactions.” Done and done!
I think it’s important to read the reviews to understand what the author got wrong and why people have a problem with the book (but after you read it, since most are littered with spoilers). But in the same way that I still love A Million Little Pieces even after James Frey admitted he embellished several parts of the “memoir”, I can still appreciate and enjoy American Dirt, and what Cummins was attacked for are far less egregious missteps than Frey. Despite its flaws, American Dirt shines a light on a subject that gets shockingly little attention, and it humanizes the challenge and reasons people may try to come to America (and do so in any manner possible), a subject with which many of us have no direct connection. From my white privileged standpoint, I think that good outweighs the negatives, and I really enjoyed the read.
Previous Best of 2020: #10 - Pretty Things
Next Best of 2020: #8 - Long Bright River