New York Times book critic Parul Sehgal said that the “rapturous and demented praise” the book has received in the press might be owed in part to the fact that “tortured sentences aside, American Dirt is enviably easy to read” and “determinedly apolitical. Some professional critics also had at American Dirt in the days before its January 21 release. The conversation surrounding American Dirt’s “ripped from the headlines” approach to telling this migrant story in an American voice for American readers places it within ongoing debates in the lit world about who can tell what stories. One of the more common knocks is that the book engages in “ brownface,” incorporating a nominally Mexican perspective that was written by a woman who - as recently as 2016 - identified as “white.” In the lead-up to American Dirt’s release, Cummins revealed she has a Puerto Rican grandmother. The book has been called “ stereotypical,” and “ appropriative” for “ opportunistically, selfishly, and parasitically” telling the fictional story of a Mexican mother and son’s journey to the border after a cartel murders the rest of their family. American Dirt has been the subject of controversy and criticism since 2019, when early readers first offered their opinions after seeing advance copies. Our next book club selection is “American Dirt” by It’s a heart-wrenching page-turner, and you won’t be able to put it down.ĭownload your copy on and #ReadWithUs: #AmericanDirt /v6K23tEyPM- oprahsbookclub January 21, 2020īook Twitter reacted to the announcement with swiftness, although perhaps not in the way Oprah’s team would have wanted, citing the recent #OwnVoices movement. uonqIa3QRK- Oprah Winfrey January 21, 2020 Hello, fellow book lovers! My next selection is “American Dirt” by From the first sentence, I was IN.

Come read with us, and then join the conversation with Jeanine Cummins on Apple TV+ coming this March.” Winfrey tweeted: “From the first sentence, I was IN … Like so many of us, I’ve read newspaper articles and watched television news stories and seen movies about the plight of families looking for a better life, but this story changed the way I see what it means to be a migrant in a whole new way.” Winfrey also posted a video of her endorsement to the Oprah’s Book Club Twitter account, saying, “I was opened, I was shook up, it woke me up, and I feel that everybody who reads this book is actually going to be immersed in the experience of what it means to be a migrant on the run for freedom.

On January 21, Oprah Winfrey announced her latest Oprah’s Book Club pick, the new novel American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

American Dirt was released on January 21, 2020.

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