TerriBull
I always think the measure of a good book are the ones that stay with you long after you've long put them down. I read quite a lot, most books, enjoyable in the moment, soon to be forgotten. American Dirt certainly wasn't one of those for me. Lydia's uphill struggle to protect her child and the insurmountable battle to the relative safety of "El Norte" is indeed heart stopping and the bond she forms with Soledad and Rebeca along the way are written to great effect.
I went Mexico over 15 years ago and was bowled over by it, we visited some of the ancient Mayan sites and eco parks where the flora and fauna and marine life are in abundance, the country is beautiful and the people we met were welcoming. It's been alarming to read year on year how the vice like grip of the cartels has escalated and the violence is endemic, in that the book is highly believable. Can't help wondering why little Costa Rica is such an oasis of peace and calm, when the countries that surround it all appear to be immersed in the evils of drug cartels, femicide and other horrors that pertain to such a dark underbelly of the criminal world. My question to Jeanine Cummins, because clearly, from her notes at the end of the books she has researched the subject in detail, would be just that, why, in her opinion is there this one country where seemingly the tentacles of the drug cartels hasn't reached. It is a tourist destination, but then again so is Mexico. I've also read that Columbia has managed to turn a corner and it's not such a dangerous place anymore. What would it take for Mexico and the rest of central America to do the same. It just seems that their governments cannot get a handle on the cartels they are too powerful and far reaching and everyone, literally everyone is in their pockets. How tragic to lose so many of it's citizens to murder and so many more in fear of their lives, like Lydia and her son the only option left open to them is to undertake such a journey and overcome umpteen dangerous and almost impossible obstacles to reach relative safety, if they ever do, and then have to live a life under the radar in constant fear of deportation.
Wonderful book, I'm passing it my husband now I'm sure he will enjoy it too. As I was reading, I was thinking "this is quite filmic, I can see a movie coming down the line"
Best read since "The Heart's Invisible Furies" that's a high bar for me.
If I knew the answer to this question, I wouldn’t be writing novels for a living. I’d be working for the CIA! But my suspicion is that nothing is as simple as it seems. We are all, in the Americas, an interdependent ecosystem of cultures and governments and people. We are all, to varying degrees, responsible for, and effected, by the international drug trade. I don’t know why some places appear to get off easier than others. But as you indicate in your question, everything is in constant flux. While one city or country may have a period of relative calm while the violence concentrates elsewhere, within a few years, change comes and everything morphs again. Until we find multinational political solutions, I fear that pattern will continue.