We enjoyed a wonderful evening at Chris Peek's home. It is so nice to see her back home in Entiat! Our book this month was "American Dirt" by Jeanine Cummins so we had Mexican fare: delicious enchiladas and all the trimmings (ie: margaritas). What a feast! Debbie G joined us with the happy/sad news that her house has sold and she will soon be moving to Idaho. We will miss seeing her on a regular basis and hope she will continue reading with us, emailing her comments and thoughts about our books. We will keep the connection with our friendship.
"American Dirt" is an unforgettable and gripping novel about emigrating to el norte. Jeanine Cummins wrote "I am acutely aware that the people coming to our Southern border are not one faceless brown mass, but singular individuals, with stories and backgrounds and reasons for coming that are unique." You realize that there is a very thin line between our worlds: compassion vs. cruelty, safety vs. desperation, beauty vs. horror. The sudden loss of innocence and the realization that terror is more immediate than grief. All for the chance to realize the dream of getting to a country that doesn't want you. "American Dirt" is hope; a modern "Odyssey" with the US as the refuge. You have to have hope to be willing to lose everything to gain everything. Everyone is running from something. Cummings wrote this to "honour the hundreds of thousands of stories we never get to hear."
