For the big-money book publicity machine to wield its influence on behalf of a novel about the Mexican immigrant experience written by a non-immigrant, non-Mexican author—when books by Mexican and Mexican American writers often struggle to see daylight—is another reminder of what the industry deems valuable. All contents © 2020 The Slate Group LLC. Photo illustration by Slate. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Read 2,082 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The Dirt book. I didn’t know how to contact you, where you were or if you would want to see me. Why is literary Twitter piling on Jeanine Cummins’ American Dirt, once one of the most highly anticipated books of the year? Over the long weekend, the slowly brewing clash spilled onto the pages of the New York Times books section. I wasn’t even very sure if you were still alive. “In fact, she perceives her own country through the eyes of a pearl-clutching American tourist.”, Gurba also dropped that she was originally assigned to review American Dirt by “an editor at a feminist magazine”—later revealed to be Ms. But an increasingly vocal contingent of Mexican and Mexican American writers has panned the novel as “trauma porn,” pointing out myriad inconsistencies and errors in Cummins’ descriptions of Mexico that a largely American, non-Spanish-speaking industry of agents, editors, and publicists seemed to not have been able to notice. After an intense bidding war among nine houses that ended in a reported seven-figure deal, the novel landed on both the New York Times’ and LitHub’s 2020-in-reading lists. At first glance, the criticism of American Dirt reads as the increasingly pro forma conversation about who’s allowed to tell whose story. Writers like Jose Antonio Vargas and Viet Thanh Nguyen publicly called for Ms. to account for why they decided to kill the review. On the other side is Cummins raising a familiar alarm on how conversations around cultural appropriation will eventually morph into censorship. Let’s just hope Oprah doesn’t pick American Dirt for her book club or anything. It’s in stores Tuesday, accompanied by praise from heavyweights like Stephen King, Sandra Cisneros, and Don Winslow—the last of whom compared the migrant drama novel to John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Once upon a time, books frequently received reviews from both the daily Times and the Book Review, but that’s much rarer now. But the pan with the biggest reach came this weekend when Parul Sehgal wrote for the New York Times’ daily Books of the Times section that “this peculiar book flounders and fails.” Two days later, the Times Book Review published Lauren Groff’s conflicted review, which makes the case that the novel “was written with good intentions, and like all deeply felt books, it calls its imagined ghosts into the reader’s real flesh.”, What’s literary drama without the Gray Lady? The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band (ISBN 0-06-098915-7) is a collaborative autobiography of Mötley Crüe by the band – Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx – and New York Times writer Neil Strauss.First published in 2001, it chronicles the formation of the band, their rise to fame and their highs and lows. Now, Harper Audio and Dey Street Books present The Dirt in Audiobook format for the very first time. It is Sebastián’s exposé on the kingpin, who also happens to be a frequent customer of Lydia’s bookstore, that serves as the linchpin for the violence that sets off the novel and Lydia’s journey through the desert to the border. I give up. By joining Slate Plus you support our work and get exclusive content. All of which makes Cummins’ fears—stated in the New York Times!—about being “silenced” seem a bit silly. “That Lydia is so shocked by her own country’s day-to-day realities […] gives the impression that Lydia might not be … a credible Mexican,” Gurba writes. What Is the Bougiest Status Symbol in Sofia Coppola’s New Movie? If you value our work, please disable your ad blocker. Oh, and the profile. While her editor thought the review was “spectacular,” Gurba wrote, it was nonetheless killed because Gurba “lacked the fame to pen something so ‘negative.’ ”. “But then I thought, if you’re the person who has the capacity to be a bridge, why not be a bridge.” I’m sure you can see where this bridge is going. I wrestled like a beast with this review, the morals of my taking it on, my complicity in the white gaze. You can cancel anytime. Before the slaughter, Lydia Quixano Pérez is a bookseller in Acapulco, mother to Luca and wife to journalist Sebastián. In addition to those reviews, the Times also published an excerpt for some reason. A film adaptation is already in the works. American Dirt follows the journey of a mother and son fleeing Mexico for America after their entire family is murdered on the orders of a local cartel kingpin. Still, the conversation seems to have reached its peak and is calming down. All rights reserved. Cummins’ good intentions have largely been acknowledged, but as Rebecca Makkai wrote in LitHub last year—and linked to on Tuesday, “apropos of nothing”—“I [can’t] good-person myself into good writing.”. The autobiography of Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, and Mick Mars features the full spectrum of sin and success, as well as a cautionary tale about the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism. Here’s what’s going on. American Dirt follows the journey of a mother and son fleeing Mexico for America after their entire family is murdered on the orders of a local cartel kingpin. Obviously I finished my review long before I knew of Parul’s—anyone who has gone through edits knows the editing timeline—but hers is better and smarter anyway. Cummins writes of her desire to humanize “the faceless brown mass” that she believes is so many people’s perception of immigrants. You’ve run out of free articles. Her father just left her mom so her mom starts a cleaning business to make extra money. Correction, Jan. 21, 2020: This piece originally misspelled Myriam Gurba’s last name.

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