Terrific books

Friends, amidst the complete sh*tshow that is a lot of the country and world right now, I offer you three excellent books through which you can escape.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. This novel, about a Mexican woman and her son escaping cartel violence in Acapulco by attempting to get to el norte, is riveting, horrific, gorgeous, educational, and unforgettable. It’s nearly 400 pages long, and I read it in maybe two days; I couldn’t, and didn’t want to, put it down.
You may have heard about the backlash against American Dirt, based on Cummins’ being only partly Latina: who gets to tell whose stories? Here is a good article about the controversy.
Nonetheless, I found the book magnificent and moving and think it’s absolutely worth reading.

The Sacrament by Ólaf Ólafsson. Also a work of fiction, The Sacrament is, like American Dirt, an infinitely believable tale. It is a beautifully quiet, tense tale of a nun who is asked by the Vatican to investigate claims of child sexual abuse by an Icelandic priest. Toggling back and forth in time and through memory, The Sacrament provides mesmerizing senses of place and person and also muses on regret, choices, and the lives we live following the decisions we make.

There There by Tommy Orange. The debut work of Cheyenne and Arapaho writer, Tommy Orange, this novel is a series of interconnected vignettes about 12 Native Americans living in East Oakland. I really enjoyed this book despite the fact that, like the previous titles, it explores a number of traumas experienced by the characters that hardly seem fictional. Depression, poverty, alcoholism, identity, drugs, loss… Orange weaves the stories together in powerful, engaging fashion.

If you read any of these wonderful books, please let me know what you think. What are you enjoying/escaping through right now?