"A Grapes of Wrath" for our times by Don Winslow is the blurb on the cover of American Dirt. I'm sorry, this is not anywhere close to Steinbeck's classic in my opinion. I found the writing very simplistic and cliche-ridden. So much so that I gave up reading it after 80 pages. I appreciate the author's intent, but this novel did not resonate with me.

Good story, read as fiction, had no expectations going into it.

This book is intense! Heart pounding, exactly! I had to switch to an Anne Tyler book every few chapters just to calm myself down. This is an unforgetable, amazing book, one of the best I've read in years. Don't read it before bed!

Powerful. Compelling. Timely.

Heart-pounding, takes you along for the ride.

Melodramatic; inauthentic; for general audience.

Great book! Compelling story about a Mex migrant and her son escaping the cartel to get to American soil.

This book is a roller coaster of emotions and really challenges you and makes you ask "what would you do if you were in Lydia's shoes?"

No doubt, Cummins can write. American Dirt was a page-turner from front cover to the end. The story is tightly told; no wasted description, dialogue, or scenes. Its unfortunate---perhaps even a crime against literature---that the novel has been criticized because the author is not of "approved" heritage or color: how ridiculous is that? It is unforgiveable that in her post-script, the author bows down to those criticisms and tries to justify herself. Nonsense! The work stands on its own and should be judged on its own. It matters not who wrote it, where they are from, what color they are, what gender they are, or who their ancestors are. Judge the book. Judge. The. Book. Had I read her mea-not-really-sorta-culpa before I'd read the book, I likely would have been so disgusted I wouldn't have read the book.

One criticism I have of the book is the author's choice <spoiler alert> to have no one on the migrant trail be a person with criminal intentions (except those pursuing the heroine and her son). There are no drug dealers seeking new customers, there are no gang members seeking access to new territory in the US, there are no murderers seeking anonymity across the border---everyone is an innocent victim with only the most noble of intentions. And as anyone with experience in the field can tell you, that is quite simply not true...not the case. I don't think the author does this out of naivete; I think she does it out of political ideology. So be it. It's her book. But it takes away from the realism that she so desperately pretends to want to be portraying.

Recommended by Beth