21-05-2025
The American Dirt author returns — and this time she won't be cancelled
Even if you didn't read American Dirt, the sour whiff of controversy it provoked may have pricked your nostrils. After it initially received positive reviews, Jeanine Cummins's 2020 novel about a Mexican mother and son who illegally enter the US to escape a cartel was savaged by authors and critics as tasteless 'trauma porn' and an insult to Hispanic writers. This wasn't her story to tell, was the message.
Cummins, who is not Mexican, had committed the grievous sin of imagination. Her publisher apologised for the way the book was marketed; her book tour was cancelled. Looking back, some valid points were made (the book's barbed-wire cover design was unfortunate), but much of the criticism felt like spite from loud mediocrities who were jealous
