Publisher cancels 'American Dirt' author's book tour amid novel's controversial portrayal of immigrants
The publisher behind a controversial book chosen for Oprah Winfrey's book club has canceled the author’s book tour due to concerns for her safety.
The author at the center of the controversy is Jeanine Cummins, who wrote the book “American Dirt,” a story about a Mexican mother named Lydia fleeing to the U.S. border with her young son, pursued by the head of a drug cartel.
In a statement, Bob Miller of Flatiron Books said, “Our concerns about safety have led us to the difficult decision to cancel the book tour. Based on specific threats to booksellers and the author, we believe there exists real peril for their safety.”
Cummins’ book -- which hit number one on the New York Times' bestseller list -- was highly praised by major authors and was even chosen as a book club pick by Barnes & Noble. Winfrey selected “American Dirt” for her book club on Jan. 21.
“This book, ‘American Dirt,’ just gutted me and I didn’t just read this book, I inhabited this book,” Winfrey said in an Instagram post announcing her pick.
Winfrey also echoed the review on the cover of the book, which quotes American author Don Winslow saying that “American Dirt” is “‘A Grapes of Wrath’ of our times." She wrote on Instagram that the novel was “not for our times, but for THIS moment in our times.”
But despite Winfrey's endorsement, the book was not well-received in the Latinx community, instantly receiving backlash.
“American Dirt" was criticized by many Mexican-American writers. Among those criticisms, Cummins was accused of writing an "exploitative, oversimplified and ill-informed" novel "too often erring on the side of trauma fetishization."
Esmeralda Bermudez, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, pointed out what she said were the flawed characteristics of the book’s heroine, Lydia.
“Never in nearly two decades of writing about immigrants have I come across someone who resembles Cummins’ heroine,” Bermudez wrote in her critique. “She’s a middle-class, bookstore-owning ‘Mami’ who starts her treacherous journey with a small fortune: a stack of cash, thousands of dollars in inheritance money; also an ATM card to access thousands more from her mother’s life savings.”
Another critic of the book, Myriam Gurba, highlighted a scene to NPR’s Rachel Martin and said, “There is a scene where the main character encounters an ice rink. And she’s utterly shocked at the existence of this ice rink, as if she’s unaware that winter sports are played in Mexico,” Gurba said. “I laughed out loud when I got to that section because I learned to ice skate in Mexico.”
Cummins has previously addressed questions about whether she's the right person to tell this story. She told "CBS This Morning" she worried her "privilege" would make her "blind to certain truths."
The author says her father is Puerto Rican, that she identifies as Latina and spent five years working on the book, at times on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The idea of this book for me was to remember the humanity of immigrants, and I feel like so often the conversation in this country when it comes to migration and immigration turns around a specific kind of stereotype,” Cummins told NPR in an interview. “I wanted to make sure that Lydia was a character who could turn that stereotype on its ear. You know, that she would be counter to our typical sort of notions than what a migrant looks like.”
Cummins has received the support of celebrated Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros, who defended the book on NPR.
"It took me on the journey and it was very believable, and I know from people who crossed the border or who had been detained, or are in the shelters, I knew this story," she said. "I wanted to support it. I do support it, and I stand by it."
Cummins will be able to talk about her book in a series of town hall meetings organized by her publishing company, Flatiron Books. Cummins will be present at the meetings along with groups who have raised objections to the book, according to Miller.
Miller acknowledged the mistakes tied to the promotion of the book where Flatiron claimed “that it was a novel that defined the migrant experience” and said that the author’s husband was an undocumented immigrant, but not specifying that he was from Ireland.
“We wish to listen, learn and do better,” he said. “But that also must include a two-way dialogue characterized by respect.”
Winfrey has also responded to the controversy around "American Dirt" and called for a deeper discussion.
"I spent the past few days listening to members of the Latinx community to get a greater understanding of their concerns and I hear them," she said in a video shared on Instagram this week. "I do."
