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Book Review of American Dirt

American Dirt
American Dirt
Author: Jeanine Cummins
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
icantswim avatar reviewed on + 71 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7


What. Is. This??

This book is controversial. I wanted to read it, to see for myself, to form my own opinion. The controversy behind this book is valid. If "eyes were opened" after reading this, as some reviewers on booksellers' websites have said, then those readers have not been paying proper attention to the world. For this book is so poor that if it is the one to open eyes, then help us please.

This book also does not depict a realistic story. I do not think a story of a well-to-do person on the run is the story that needs to be told. Perhaps the author thought that the only way to gain understanding of migrants by a middle-class US readership was to create a character that closely mirrors her readership. But she was wrong. As a middle-class US reader, all she did was make me mad. I do not want this underdeveloped soap opera of a book to help me better understand cultures and circumstances different from my own.

I am not advocating for illegal immigration. No. I am advocating for a book that better explores the human condition and better educates me on the lived experiences of others.

I had higher expectations of this one, given all the publicity, but it failed. I am sorely disappointed that I bought this book.