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May 11, 2020
I read American Dirt with my book group because I had an interest the controversy over it. Had to plow through the first half of the book as the characters and story line didn’t feel authentic. The second half of the book was a little more interesting; however, the writing style was lacking throughout. The story follows Lydia, an upper class Acapulco bookstore owner, who is married to a journalist. Lydia enters a close “literary friendship” with Javier who (much to her surprise) turns out to be the leader of a major cartel. When Lydia’s husband exposes Javier in an article he has written, Javier guns down her entire family (husband, mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces), leaving Lydia and her eight year old son, Luca, to flee Mexico to the US with basically nothing. It was worth it to watch Oprha’s facilitation of interviews with the author and a line-up of Latinix women. After reading American Dirt and all the fuss the publishing industry made over the book, it really made me wonder how they chose the next best read. It couldn’t be profit over art, could it?