In a podcast interview, Oprah Winfrey defended her decision to pick Jeanine Cummins’ controversial American Dirt for her book club in 2020, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Winfrey talked about her selection of the book on The Book Case, the new podcast from ABC broadcaster Charlie Gibson and his daughter Kate Gibson.
“I had chosen that book and stood by that book because the truth of the matter is, I really loved the book,” Winfrey told the Gibsons. “And that was the only reason I was choosing the book, because I really loved the book.”
Published in January of 2020, American Dirt follows a woman in Mexico who tries to escape to the U.S. with her child after her husband publishes a profile of a notorious Mexican drug lord. The novel was heavily hyped by publisher Flatiron Books, and received mixed reviews from critics upon its publication.
It became the center of a controversy after it was criticized by Latinx writers including Myriam Gurba, who wrote that it belonged “to the great American tradition of…appropriating genius works by people of color” and “repackaging them for mass racially ‘colorblind’ consumption.” Flatiron canceled Cummins’ book tour in the wake of the controversy.
Winfrey said in the interview that she stands by her decision to pick the book.
“I really appreciated that book, and it helped me to see immigrants and the whole migration process differently than I had before,” she said. “So it opened up a space in me, allowed me to see things differently, and I appreciated that from the author and I thought the story was well told.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
