American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Reviewed by: Becky Houghton, Reference Assistant
Genre: Social issues thriller
Suggested Age: Adult
What is This Book About?: American Dirt is the story of a mother and son and their journey to escape cartel violence in Acapulco, Mexico that has killed their entire family. Lydia and her son Luca witness the violent murder of Sebastian, their husband and father, after he publishes a newspaper story about the Los Jardineros and their leader Javier. Sebastian along with eleven members of his extended family are killed by the cartel. Escape is the only avenue left to them – escape to the United States. The remainder of the book details the journey northward and the other migrants that they encounter on that journey.
My Review: I highly recommend this book. Lydia and her son, Luca are very realistic, sympathetic and well- developed characters and their struggle to escape from a Mexican cartel that murdered their family is a frightening, thriller tale, but this book is so much more than just an exciting and riveting tale. Cummins has written an almost poetic book filled with the love between a mother and son and those that they come to view as “family.” The journey that Lydia and Luca undertake from their home in Acapulco to Mexico City and on north toward Nogales and eventually into the United States is filled with danger and fear, but it is also filled with people–other migrants from throughout Central America. Many of these men, women and children on the train known as “La Bestia” become a new family as they share the trials and atrocities encountered along the journey. There is violence, rape, hunger, death and most of all fear throughout their travels, but the love between mother and son and their companions over shadows and triumphs over trials. Human courage is displayed. American Dirt was called “the most anticipated book of 2020” and “The Grapes of Wrath of our times” in its early reviews. I agree that it is a beautifully written, but violent tale of the struggles faced by some citizens of Mexico and other Central American countries forcing them to seek a better life in the United States. The book and author have also been criticized as unauthentic. I strongly disagree with this characterization. This is a work of fiction and Cummins never portrayed it as “truth.” Neither is this a treatise on immigration. It is a well-written work of fiction and one that I am glad to have read!
Three Words That Describe This Book: Heroic, Compassionate, Dramatic
Give This a Try if You Like: John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath or Griffin’s Hazardous Duty
Rating: 5/5
About FDL Reads
FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.
