Dear Bookclub,
Right there. On the cover. 'Jeanine Cummins Bestselling author of AMERICAN DIRT'. Casually chatting after our meal and deep dive into our April selection, "The Outside Boy", someone mentioned that this is the author of "American Dirt". I was flabbergasted! Did I expect an 'Irish' writer?
How did this amazing feat escape me... Cummins, the center of the 2020 Oprah-selection-controversy, is clearly a gifted writer. Not an Irish writer or Puerto Rican writer(both in her heritage), a Spanish writer (she was born in Spain), or an 'American' writer - she is a writer able to create work across many cultures.
Cummins weathered the race storm stirred up by Latin writers, as many felt she was inaccurate in writing the Latino immigrant experience, since she identified as 'mostly white'. Without re-visiting the whole of the controversy, the point of exclusion was noted yet this is fiction and a great book was written.
From Wikipedia:
Some also claimed that Cummins had previously identified as white but re-branded herself as Latina with the publication of the book, pointing to a line in a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which Cummins stated "I am white." Most did not refer to the entire statement in the op-ed, however, which was about the murder of Cummins's cousins by a group of three black and one white men and included the line "I am white. The grandmother I shared with Julie and Robin was Puerto Rican, and their father is half Lebanese. But in every practical way, my family is mostly white."
As readers, we benefit from the depth of her work and leaning away from ethnicity. "The Outside Boy" was well-liked. We relished the descriptions, the beauty and heartache of Christy. The travellers and the dichotomies of their moral codes and that of the Catholic Church set us to pondering the gray areas. The boy who chose outside could not help but leave us with a renewed appreciation for different perspectives, once again. The above is from a book of photography "Irish Travellers: Tinkers No More" by Alen MacWeeney:
My suggestions for an upcoming read:
"Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir" Ina Garten *chosen
"The Violin Conspiracy" Brendan Slocumb
"Travels With George: In Search for Washington and his Legacy" Nathaniel Philbrick
Please check out the above mentioned memoir, "A Rip in Heaven", to recognize Cummins' varied styles.
https://www.amazon.com/Rip-Heaven-Memoir-Murder-Aftermath/dp/0451210530
Up next:
Happy reading,
LK
