Bad Ideas and Poor Choices

In June of 2018 a relatively unknown author published a book titled American Dirt. I didn’t hear anything about it but I’m not a fan of Oprah’s picks in general because I’m a literary snob and don’t start me on the New York Times. To be fair, they rate and rank what the public snarfs up like Scooby snacks and that does say something about us as a culture these days and I’ll just let that go. For now.

In any event, American Dirt was extremely well received. My first edition has a copyright date of 2019 and a publication date of 2020 despite the fact that the interwebs insist on June 2018. This is only relevant because I like to be precise when I get ready to pan a book. It looks like American Dirt hit the Oprah list first and then spent 36 weeks on the NYT best seller list. However, in January of 2020 the book got slammed. And by slammed, I mean enough significant writers slammed Ms Cummins into the proverbial wall so hard I didn’t think she’d ever find another publisher.

The cover of my book reads: “A Grapes of Wrath for our times.” Don Winslow

I didn’t know who Don Winslow was, so I looked him up. I don’t get it. Did he not read the book? Is he utterly out of touch? Does he write pulp fiction under the guise of an educated political activist, or did he fail to read the book? Unfortunately, there were internationally acclaimed writers pretty much spewing the same thing, not to mention Fucking Oprah. And yes, I do put Stephen King in this category because he is aware of what’s happening in the world. He didn’t read it. He could not have.

Which brings me to why I own this book. I am sensitive to cancel culture. Sometimes oversensitive. I don’t believe in book banning. Of any book. That means I don’t agree with the ‘cancelling’ or ‘unpublishing’ or ‘let’s be honest, banning’ of six books by Dr. Seuss published in a time when the racism we experience when we read them today would not have been relevant when published. They are, for better or worse, part our history. So we wiped them out. Ehhhh…. yeah, no. Bad. Same as banning The Grapes of Wrath. Or the Anarchist’s Cookbook. Or the Joy of Cooking (I made that one up).

I wanted to know why the literary community had turned on this author with a ferocity that I’ve honestly never seen in that industry. I ordered, received, and read the book because I believe we have in many cases gone too fucking far with what we define as appropriation. And that’s what I expected to find. A well written book about crossing the border written by a white woman. You know, like Barbara Kingsolver who I would never accuse of cultural appropriation despite the fact that she writes, primarily about cultures that are not her own. She’s also made some pretty serious political statements, and I believe they stand.

I read the book.

I actually cried. I wept. I sniveled. I threw the book across the room (that’s a one and only for me).

The Grapes of Wrath of our time.

My opinion, understand that, but it’s strong and I can defend it, but my opinion.

This is one of the most dangerous books in circulation today.

Why? Well, it’s a story about a family in Latin America. All but two, mother and son, are executed by the local cartel. Dad was a journalist. OK. I’m following.

Somehow, mom and kid actually get out of the home during the mass execution and get out of town. Somehow, they make their way to the border and find a coyote. So far, I’m following but I am having trouble with the logistics, but I make a leap faith because she writes well and the story is compelling.

It’s at the kind coyote point where the narrative falls apart and never comes back to any sort of reality.

When I read the book in 2022 immigration was an issue. Where I live, if people crossing the border can somehow get to this part of the country, this part of the country is prepared to receive them, protect them, house them, help them obtain legal status, and if necessary (Somalia specifically), get them across the other border.

Three years later all hell has broken loose and even in my state, where this shit simply does not happen, ICE is arriving and we’re trying to figure out what the fuck we’re going to do.

Circle yourself back to American Dirt. Oh oh.

Now. To my point (you knew I’d get there eventually). If you, or anyone, wants to read this book, that is your right and I hope it’s in your local library and if not, I hope they can get it for you.

But it can’t stay in my house on my shelves. It can’t.

So what to do? I guess I had a couple of choices. I could take it to my local library and get my face slapped. I could bring it to Goodwill, and they’d take it and someone would pick it up and I would be responsible for circulating something I find reprehensible. I can’t do it. Could I leave it on my shelves? Nope. I could throw it in the burn pile. That’s a statement, except I don’t believe in burning books unless they have become so worn and degraded as to be unreadable. I mean, the pages have to be falling out, the spine shot, and the pages so yellow the text can’t be read. If it’s a classic it gets a pass.

So. I can’t burn this book. I can’t keep this book. I can’t throw this book in the trash or recycling. I can’t put this book into circulation. I just can’t.

So. I buried it. I dug a hole this morning right up against my marsh as if I was going to bury a pet (except not so close to the marsh). I removed the jacket and tore off the cover and binding because those parts don’t always compost very well. I didn’t say anything over the corpse. I didn’t even take a picture. I just filled in the hole, knocked the dirt off my shovel, and walked away.

This post is not meant to be a book review. All that is context and without the context, my conundrum is meaningless.

It’s a look into my conscience, what I struggled with and why, and how I resolved what was a very real problem for me in a world where I have some very big problems right now.

Books matter. What we do with them matters. Just ask Ray Bradbury.

If you’d like to read about what happened when the literati (is that a word?) tore Ms Cummins to shreds, this is a good Op-ed from the NYT.

The Long Shadow of American Dirt – Pamela Paul, January 26, 2023

Note: For the record I don’t agree with the literati. I do think the book is way off base and dangerous, full of misinformation. But it was published. It was sold. It was read. By a lot of people. She had a right. She still does, and I’m glad I purchased the book because I wanted to support an author who had been exiled by her tribe. Bet you weren’t expecting that.