IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Critics of Oprah book club title put new novel on trial
TUCSON, ARIZ. » When Oprah Winfrey chose the novel “American Dirt” for her book club, she imagined engaging in an impassioned television dialog about the narrative, which follows a Mexican mother and her son fleeing to the United States.
Instead, Winfrey ended up organizing a show that put the book, author Jeanine Cummins and Winfrey herself on trial. After critics complained about the novel’s portrayal of Latinos, she turned the forum into a debate about the marginalization of Latino voices, the lack of diversity in publishing and the question of who is best suited to tell a given story.
Just a few months ago, the book was one of 2020’s most welcome releases, described as a modern-day version of John Steinbeck’s classic “The Grapes of Wrath.” But criticism quickly mounted and made it Exhibit A in grievances against the industry. The Mexican-American writer Myriam Gurba condemned the novel as a “Trumpian” charade crammed with Mexican stereotypes.
Winfrey and Cummins were joined on the show by three prominent critics of the book. The Associated Press was allowed to attend the taping of the highly anticipated program last month in Tucson, not far from where Cummins wrote and researched parts of the novel. The program began streaming at midnight today on Apple TV Plus.
Speaking to the AP after the show, Winfrey lamented the controversy.
“This has taken up a lot of my energy, a lot of her (Cummins’) energy, and it’s taken away my attention from why people want to read books,” she said.
Future book club picks, she said, will almost certainly include Latino authors — she has only chosen a handful since founding her club in 1996. She promised a more thorough approach that anticipated possible backlash, saying she was not going “to wade into that water” again.
Cummins said the conversation was “productive.”
“It was civil,” she said. “I really understood where they were coming from, the women who were there in opposition to the book. I hope that they also understood where I was coming from.”
Published Jan. 21, the book has been a best seller, fulfilling the hopes of the Macmillan-owned Flatiron Books, which outbid several competitors and paid seven figures for the manuscript. Sales have exceeded 200,000 copies.
But the publisher has retreated from any grand literary claims. The blurb comparing the story to “The Grapes of Wrath” has been removed from the cover, and Flatiron’s president and publisher, Bob Miller, apologized for the book’s promotion, including a luncheon last year that featured barbed wire centerpieces based on the book’s jacket design.