American Dirt: Identity Dirt

 

Jeanine Cummins’s novel “American Dirt” was released January 21, 2020. Based on the prepublication information and demand, Cummins was paid a 7-figure advance by Flatiron Books (as result of a bidding war involving 9 publishers). The back cover jacket quoted seven well known authors: Stephen King, Sandra Cisneros, Don Winslow, Ann Patchett, John Grisham, Julia Alvarez, and Kristin Hannah—all heaping praise on the book. A widely anticipated book, Oprah’s Book Club announced choice of it the day before it was released, and it quickly debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List.

A critical backlash occurred in the month before release led by Myriam Gurba, David Bowles, and Daniel Olivas, each writers and Latino literary activists, among others. On January 30, citing threats to Cummins, and to booksellers and event moderators, Flatiron Books cancelled her book tour while also apologizing for some questionable promotional strategies at the launch of the book. At about the same time, a letter from 142 writers to Oprah Winfrey, asked that she reconsider her choice of American Dirt for Oprah’s Book Club. These critics collectively accused Cummins of inaccurate and exploitative characterizations of the migrants and of Mexican culture—"cultural exploitation.” On February 3, 2020 members of the 142-writer group, known as #DignidadLiteraria, met with McMillan, the parent of Flatiron Books, to demand greater representation of Latino writers in publishing and to request an investigation into discriminatory practices in the publishing industry. The backlash seemed propelled by resentment—resentment by Latino artists of the stunning financial and critical success achieved by Cummins, a white American publishing-industry insider, to the alleged exclusion of Mexican and migrant writers. It evidenced a writing world pulled apart by identity politics.

Meanwhile mainstream critical evaluation of the book remained positive. The following is from Wikipedia:*

Oprah Winfrey, in selecting American Dirt for her book club, said, "Jeanine Cummins accomplished a remarkable feat, literally putting us in the shoes of migrants and making us feel their anguish and desperation to live in freedom." The book also received glowing reviews from Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros, who called it "the great novel of las Americas" and "the international story of our time" and Washington Post critic Polly Rosenwaike, who wrote that it "offers both a vital chronicle of contemporary Latin American migrant experience and a profoundly moving reading experience." NPR's Maureen Corrigan was equally positive, writing that "Cummins' novel brings to life the ordeal of individual migrants, who risk everything to try to cross into the U.S." Jacob M. Appel, in New York Journal of Books wrote, "American Dirt is going to be the defining book of 2020."

…Asked about American Dirt in 2023, Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga praised it, and said that neither he nor anyone he discussed it with in Mexico felt that the author was out of bounds.

All unbeknownst to me. A year after it was released, I learned of “American Dirt” from a fellow reader and bought a copy from an independent book store in Alpine, Texas. I found it riveting and agreed with the comments of the authors on the back cover. I was awed by the huge amount of research and legwork that must have been necessary for a white American author to write the book. I read that she says it took her 7 years.

As I learned of this controversy based on cultural exploitation and or identity politics, I could not help but think of Zora Neale Hurston (January 17, 1891—January 28, 1960) and her treatment by fellow Black American literati.

Hurston was a part of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s that produced much avant-garde Black American Art (fiction, poetry, jazz, and dance). She was a novelist, folklorist, anthropologist and documentary filmmaker. The most famous of her four novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God was published in 1937. She was a prolific writer of short stories, plays, ethnographies, and essays.

According to Wikipedia:*

Hurston’s work slid into obscurity for decades, for both cultural and political reasons. The use of African-American dialect, as featured in Hurston’s novels, became less popular. Younger writers felt that it was demeaning to use such dialect, given the racially charged history of dialect fiction in American literature… Also, Hurston had made stylistic choices in dialogue influenced by her academic studies. Thinking like a folklorist, Hurston strove to represent speech patterns of the period, which she had documented through ethnographic research.

Several of Hurston's literary contemporaries criticized her use of dialect, saying that it was a caricature of African-American culture and was rooted in a post-Civil War, white racist tradition. These writers, associated with the Harlem Renaissance, criticized Hurston's later work as not advancing the movement…But since the late 20th century, there has been a revival of interest in Hurston. Critics have since praised her skillful use of idiomatic speech.

Hurston’s unmarked grave was found in 1997 by Novelist Alice Walker and Hurston scholar Charlotte D. Hunt. So it goes.

 

• The Wikipedia links included here link to further thorough documentation of the people and topics referenced here.

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