YMMV / American Dirt

• Overshadowed by Controversy: It is nigh-impossible to discuss the book without also discussing the several controversies that surround it, especially upon its admittance into the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. The most discussed controversy being the author herself, Jeanine Cummins, who has Puerto Rican and Lebanese heritage but identifies herself and most of her family as white. Mass debates have ensued over whether Cummins had a place to write a story about two Mexican refugees migrating to the U.S., and if the book's success and admittance into the OWBC is proof of white privelege, when similar novels by Mexican authors have gone unnoticed. Other controversies include whether the novel "romanticized" the experience of migrants, and if the depiction of the Mexican characters was stereotypical or not. See this article for further discussion of these controversies.

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