Books: “American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins
Imagine you’re the owner of a bookstore in a small city. Your partner/spouse is a crusading journalist who writes an article exposing the goings-on of a criminal operation.
Once the article is published and nothing untoward occurs, you think you’re safe. So you decide to throw a birthday party for your spouse, inviting your cousins and close friends. Suddenly, gunfire erupts and in a matter of minutes, 16 people have been murdered point-blank. By hiding and keeping perfectly still, you and your youngest child survive.
This is the setup for Jeanine Cummins’ “American Dirt,” one of the most quietly terrifying novels I’ve read in years. The bookstore is in Acapulco, the bookstore’s owner is Lydia, and she and her son Luca have no choice but to leave for “el Norte “ once the Mexican cartel discovers she’s alive.
On their journey north, Lydia and Luca resort to doing things middle-class people like themselves never dreamed of doing, like leaping from a highway overpass onto the roof of a moving train as it heads to the border. Suddenly outlaws, they need to dodge la policia wherever the train stops—and depend on the mercy of the local townspeople for food and shelter.
Along the way Lydia and Luca meet fellow refugees—similar victims of violence, both domestic and political, that make it impossible for them to remain in place. They also meet people traveling in the other direction: deportadoes, who once earned PhDs and held white-collar jobs in the US but who were deported by ICE. Eventually they meet a “coyote,” a man whose business is to transport these refugees across the US border after a harrowing trek through deserts and over mountains.
Written from Lydia’s POV, the novel reflects Cummins’ years of research before putting pen to paper. This included interviews with immigration agencies and individuals who came to America in similar circumstances, including the famed Mexican-American writer Luis Alberta Urrea.
Every year as Election Day approaches, we begin to hear tales of “caravans of murderers and rapists” who seek to “take our jobs.” Reading this novel will disabuse you of any such notions—in fact it’s they who are often the victims of murderers, rapists and narcos.
In short, if you’ve watched “Breaking Bad” or “Better Call Saul” you’ll understand what the Mexican cartel was all about. “American Dirt” succinctly and compassionately gives the backstory of the people who are running from it.
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