Having chosen American Dirt as January’s book of the month, Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club continued to praise and publicize it, even as much of Winfrey’s fanbase protested, according to The Cut. Many found this decor decision offensive, according to Vox.īut not everyone was opposed to Cummins’ work. The book’s marketing campaign made matters worse, when photos from a late 2019 publishing event circulated on the internet, showing centerpieces decorated with barbed wire. Gurba’s chief concerns, including Cummins’ “clumsy and distorted” use of a Mexican narrative as a white author and her perceived “white saviorism,” were shared by many on Twitter, with some critics and readers calling for a boycott of the novel. Latinx author and critic Myriam Gurba’s review of the novel went viral, inspiring much of the subsequent social media rage. In the prepublication review stage, critics were divided in their views of American Dirt. American Dirt, Cummins’ most recent novel, tells the story of a mother and son escaping cartel violence in Acapulco, Mexico, by fleeing to the United States.

She has also gained notoriety for declarations she made in the past regarding identity, such as a 2016 op-ed she wrote for The New York Times in which she said writing about race as a white author made her uncomfortable, and later, in 2019, when she self-identified in interviews as Latinx because her grandmother is Puerto Rican. Jeanine Cummins is an American author who has written several novels, including The Outside Boy and The Crooked Branch, as well as a memoir called A Rip in Heaven. Despite having also garnered significant literary acclaim, Cummins began to receive death threats because of the content of her novel. Following the publication of her novel American Dirt in January 2020, Jeanine Cummins received public criticism for allegedly whitewashing, monetizing, and mischaracterizing the narrative of border-crossing Mexican immigrants.

Jeanine cummings