Tag: domossiah

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Someone asked me the other day why I only seem to give high scores for books. Well, the answer to that is twofold:

  1. I only review books that I finish.
  2. If I’m not enjoying a book, I won’t finish it.

And treading water somewhere in there we have books that I didn’t enjoy so much, but. for some reason, were too compelling to put down.

Which brings me to American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, a book that seems to have taken me the best part of two months to finish.

Okay, so let’s start with the good, the excellent in fact. This is a great story: Lydia and her young son, Luca, are trying to flee Mexico after their entire family is murdered at a family gathering. Their desperate two-thousand mile trek by train and on foot takes them through a serious of heart-stopping encounters with the very best and worst of humanity. The characterisations are suburb, the tension almost unbearable, and if you’re wondering why anyone would put themselves and their children at risk (being robbed is the inevitable; being murdered, raped, kidnapped or sold into slavery are highly likely) to enter a foreign country, then here’s a clue: it isn’t money.

Continue reading “American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins”

Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera

I’ve been reading a lot of books on culture and racism recently. The thing that surprises me the most is how much I still don’t know; in every book I’ve learned something that feels like a slap in the face with a wet haddock: something you know you’ll experience one day, and that you won’t enjoy it.

Sanghera’s book takes a slightly different approach to the likes of Caste as it focuses on the Asian experience, and is similar to Natives as it takes a long, hard, painful look at the British Empire and its contribution to the divisions we see in society today.

It’s a broad-ranging piece of writing too, covering the author’s own experiences growing up, but focussing mainly on the hidden history of Britain’s time in India and China, and its treatment of the population.

Continue reading “Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera”