American Dirt Controversy, RIP Mary Higgins Clark, Pennie Picks The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Hamilton Becomes a Movie, The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman, Secrets of the Chocolate House by Paula Brackston, and Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

Normally I wouldn't get into this kind of controversy, but this has become THE book scandal of the year. I feel for the author, who never asked for this, and who didn't really think her novel was a defining book of the immigrant experience, (that was her tone-deaf publisher's marketing dept), but I also understand how the Latina author community would be up in arms because their novels, written by actual Latina/Latino immigrants are often passed by, or given no marketing at all. So perhaps something good will come of this, in that it has gotten people talking about publishing racial bias and cultural appropriation. I seriously do NOT approve, however, of the death threats and censorship that some people are calling for. That's just shameful behavior.

American Dirt: Commentary on the Controversy

Commentary on American Dirt continues, particulary since Flatiron Books canceled http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235880 Jeanine Cummins' bookstore tour.

In a Washington Post story called "Threats against the author of American Dirt' threaten us all http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235881," Ron Charles lamented that threats of physical violence had caused the tour to be cancelled. "More than 30 years after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa demanding the assassination of Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses, here we are terrorizing one of our own novelists."

He called the book "a melodramatic thriller tarted up with flowery ornaments and freighted with earnest political relevance. The book might have fallen unremarked into the great vat of sentimental suspense fiction that New York pumps out every year, except for an unprecedented collision of promotion and denunciation."

A major problem, he wrote, was the publisher's decision to make the book "the defining novel of the immigrant experience--an emotional story powerful enough to galvanize the sympathy of a nation," the kind of effort, however flawed, that has a powerful history: "It's worth recalling an earlier melodramatic thriller tarted up with flowery ornaments and freighted with earnest political relevance by a white woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe. We can debate how egregiously Stowe appropriated the lives of black people and exploited their suffering, but President Abraham Lincoln said that Uncle Tom's Cabin sparked the Civil War. If American Dirt similarly motivates some Americans to fight against this country's immoral immigration actions along the southern border, then more power to Cummins. And once engaged in that struggle, these readers might move on to better books."

He ended: "The best critics of American Dirt are clearly motivated by a desire to defend the integrity of Mexican culture and the humanity of our most vulnerable residents. But in today's toxic atmosphere, those valuable critiques have been drowned out by a cowardly chorus of violence."

In a statement http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235882, the National Coalition Against Censorship focused on the how the tour cancellation hindered discussion of a variety of issues that might have

taken place in bookstores. "Threats that are made in an effort to force the cancellation of an author's appearance at a bookstore threaten freedom of speech and the open exchange of ideas. Debate is essential in a free society, and bookstores play an integral part in the process by which ideas are disseminated and debated. An author appearance does more than provide customers the chance to meet the person behind the book. It gives them the opportunity to ask questions, express their own opinions, and even to disagree...

"Given that some of the stores had sold as many as 300 tickets for these events, it is likely that thousands of people were denied an opportunity to hear Cummins. This does more than disappoint the book's fans. Readers critical of the book have lost public forums to express their views as well. Some might have wanted to peacefully protest in front of the store.

"The cancellation of the American Dirt tour is a lost opportunity to discuss immigration--one of the most fraught issues in American life today--as well as other important subjects, including who gets to tell what stories, whose voices are prioritized in our cultural spaces and how the lack of diversity in publishing impacts the stories and authors given platforms."

The Guardian noted that booksellers are handling sales of the book http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235883 in a variety of ways. City Lights, San Francisco, Calif., is not selling the book while Green Apple Books, also in San Francisco, is displaying copies of books by Latinx authors next to American Dirt.

Cellar Door, Riverside, Calif., is donating 20% of the store's profits from American Dirt to RAICES http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235884 (the Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services).

In Slate http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235885, Laura Miller spoke off the record with "several editors at Big Five houses [about] what went wrong in the publication of American Dirt, how it might have been avoided, and how the landscape has changed--if at all."

"Some of this is generational," a white assistant editor told Miller in discussing how such a book could have be published. "I would have spoken up 100% about how problematic the book was."

An editorial director of an imprint seconded the generational aspect, saying, "Over 50 it's just white people who went to Harvard, but the pool of people under 35 is much more diverse."

Positioning was a key problem in the American Dirt controversy, Miller wrote: " 'From what I've heard,' said one senior editor, 'it's a really quick, pacey, dramatic read, and there's a whole coterie of people who will say that to their friends, and word of mouth will move across the country like wildfire.' In other words, the novel is a work of commercial fiction, much like Where the Crawdads Sing and other titles that sell in large numbers while generally flying under the radar of cultural critics and political commentators. Where Cummins' publisher went wrong, in this formulation, was to present American Dirt as if it was also, in the senior editor's words, 'a contribution to a vital understanding of this issue,' with the implied claim of representing the issue accurately rather than using it as a backdrop for an entertaining suspense story. 'It's a commercial book that was mispositioned as literary,' another senior publishing executive observed."

Miller pointed to several examples of somewhat similar books positioned differently. A recent one is Don Winslow, "a white author who writes bestselling thrillers about Latin American drug cartels in which the characters are arguably just as much stock figures as those in Cummins' novel, yet his work is not presented as social commentary, with all the heightened attention such pretenses bring with them."

The book, still the bestselling fiction title in the country, will not be hurt by the controversy. Miller wrote: "No one I spoke to expected the controversy over American Dirt to harm the novel's commercial prospects. 'The consumers don't care. They. Don't. Care,' said one editor with exasperation. 'If it does register, they'll just write it off as PC.' While one source said he was sure the incident is 'humiliating' to Cummins, her publisher, and other people associated with the book, you can wipe your tears away with money.'"

In conclusion, Miller quoted a publisher on how the controversy might affect publishers. "I don't see this leading to a decision not to acquire a book that we would have acquired in the past at all. But I do think that in cases where there's a mismatch between the identity of the character and author, the value of those books over books where the author is a member of the community being written about will be more closely scrutinized. There's a fine line between free expression--which can mean publishing books that not everyone on the staff likes--and publishing responsibly, ethically, and with proper due diligence."

In one of the funnier, pointed commentaries on the controversy, McSweeney's published "As a 28-Year-Old Latino, I'm Shocked My New Novel, Memoirs of a Middle-Aged White Lady, Has Been So Poorly Received http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235886" by Carlos Greaves.

It reads, in part, "When I set out to write this novel, which takes place in Iowa and centers around 46-year-old Meradyth Spensir and her 8-year-old son Chab, my goal was to shed light on the struggles that white middle-aged women in America face--struggles that I, a 28-year-old Latino man, don't know much about but I would imagine are pretty tough. And as far as I'm concerned, I freaking nailed it....

"Despite... minor cultural inaccuracies, I still think Memoirs of a Middle-Aged White Lady captures the essence of what it means to be a middle-aged white woman in America. I admit that, when the idea first came to me, I was worried that, as a non-woman, a non-white person, and a non-middle-aged person, I wouldn't be able to do this story justice. But the question I kept asking myself was: if not me, then who? Who was going to write about the middle-aged white woman experience in this country? Middle-aged white women? Can middle-aged white women even type? I'm seriously asking this because, again, I didn't actually talk to any when I was working on this novel, so I would genuinely like to know."

 Though I am not a fan of thrillers in general, I did read a couple of her books and enjoyed them. RIP to a prolific author.

Obituary Note: Mary Higgins Clark

"Queen of Suspense" Mary Higgins Clark http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235890 died on Friday at age 92. In a career that lasted 45 years, she wrote 56 books, all bestsellers. They were mostly suspense novels, some written with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark and others with crime novelist Alafair Burke in the Under Suspicion series. She also published a memoir, Kitchen Privileges, and several children's books. More than 100 million copies of her books are in print in the U.S. alone.

A lifetime dream of hers was to be a published writer, and after being widowed at age 37 with five children, she famously wrote at her kitchen table before dawn before commuting into New York City for her job. Her writing career started in 1975, when she was nearly 50 and published Where Are the Children?. Among her best-known work are A Stranger Is Watching; The Cradle Will Fall; Loves Music, Loves to Dance; Let Me Call You Sweetheart; and Daddy's Gone A Hunting. Her most recent book, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry, appeared last November. (Exactly a month ago, Shelf Awareness published a Reading With... column with her http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235891. Our favorite part of that: Q: "How technology has altered the way a mystery is written." A: "If in your story you want to put a body in a dumpster, it's hard to find one that doesn't have a camera pointed at it.")

Clark acknowledged having a formula. Speaking with CNBC, she said once, "In my case, it's always a woman, a young woman. Smart, intelligent, and something happens. She's not on the wrong side of town at 4 in the morning. She's living her life and something crosses it. And by her own intelligence, she works her way out of it."

In an announcement of her death, Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, Clark's publisher for 45 years, called Clark "simply, a remarkable woman who overcame an early life of hardship and challenges, never doubting her ability as a natural-born storyteller (and she was one for the ages), and who persevered through trial and rejection until she at last achieved her Holy Grail of being a published author.

"Those of us who are fortunate to have worked with Mary--and at Simon & Schuster, that is multitudes--know her as a person of tremendous loyalty and dedication: In this day and age it is exceedingly rare for an author, especially one as prized as Mary, to remain with a single publisher for an entire 45-year career.

"She was similiarly devoted to her readers, until very recently going out of her way to meet them while on tour for every one of her books, and drawing tremendous energy and satisfaction from her interactions with them, even though she long ago could have pulled back from that part of being an author. She was, too, a generous member of the literary community, especially toward new authors, and was well known beyond the publishing world for her support of innumerable philanthropic and civic causes."

Reidy quoted Michael Korda, S&S editor-in-chief emeritus, who said, "Mary and I have been dear friends, and worked together since 1975, during which time we never had a cross word between us, which surely sets something of a record for author-editor relationships.

"She was unique. Nobody ever bonded more completely with her readers than Mary did; she understood them as if they were members of her own family. She was always absolutely sure of what they wanted to read--and, perhaps more important, what they didn't want to read--and yet she managed to surprise them with every book. She was the Queen of Suspense, it wasn't just a phrase; she always set out to end each chapter on a note of suspense, so you just had to keep reading. It was at once a gift, but also the result of hard work, because nobody worked harder than Mary did on her books to deliver for her readers. She was also, unfailingly, cheerful under pressure, generous, good humored and warm-hearted, the least 'temperamental' of bestselling authors, and the most fun to be around. I feel privileged to have enjoyed 45 years of her friendship, and saddened that I will no longer be able to pick up the phone and hear her say, 'Michael, I think I've figured out how to make this story work.' She was a joy to work with, and to know."

Clark's legacy includes the Mary Higgins Clark Award, an annual prize given by the Mystery Writers of America to the year's best suspense writing.

I am posting this because I read and loved this novel, and it steams me that Jojo Moyes plagiarized the book as a whole and turned it into The Giver of Stars, and because she's got more of a "name brand" than Richardson, her book gets tons of good reviews and expensive marketing, while everyone overlooks the fact that Moyes cheated her way to fame and fortune with this book. She should be ashamed!

Pennie Picks: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (Sourcebooks Landmark, $15.99, 9781492671527) as her pick of the month for February. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote: "If you've never heard of the Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, I can't think of a better way to get a taste than through this month's book buyer's pick, Kim Michele Richardson's The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.

"Cussy Mary Carter is part of a mobile library that delivers books to people in sparsely populated Appalachia. She is also the last of the blue-skinned people of Kentucky. Cussy battles not only prejudice against her skin color, but also the fear of the power of the written word."

I am so excited to see this come to the big screen, since it's impossible to get tickets to see it live on Broadway, and it's also seriously expensive (out of most people's price range). 

Movies: Hamilton

"Movie theaters aren't throwing away their shot to have Hamilton http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43237623 on the big screen," Variety noted in reporting that Disney is bringing a film of Lin-Manuel Miranda's stage hit, with the original Broadway cast, to movie theaters October 15, 2021. Hamilton director Thomas Kail filmed the stage show before the original Broadway cast members began to depart. The musical was inspired by Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton.

"Lin-Manuel Miranda created an unforgettable theater experience and a true cultural phenomenon, and it was for good reason that Hamilton was hailed as an astonishing work of art," said Disney CEO and chairman Robert Iger. "All who saw it with the original cast will never forget that singular experience. And we're thrilled to have the opportunity to share this same Broadway experience with millions of people around the world."

The original Broadway cast includes Miranda as Alexander Hamilton; Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson; Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr; Christopher Jackson as George Washington; Jonathan Groff as King George III; Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler; and Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton.

Miranda added: "I fell in love with musical storytelling growing up with the legendary Howard Ashman-Alan Menken Disney collaborations--The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin. I'm so proud of what Tommy Kail has been able to capture in this filmed version of Hamilton--a live theatrical experience that feels just as immediate in your local movie theater. We're excited to partner with Disney to bring the original Broadway company of Hamilton to the largest audience possible."

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman is a wonderful historical fiction novel that uses a slice of magic realism to recount the lives (and deaths) of several families at the end of WWII. Here's the blurb: “Oh, what a book this is! Hoffman’s exploration of the world of good and evil, and the constant contest between them, is unflinching; and the humanity she brings to us—it is a glorious experience.” —ELIZABETH STROUT, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge

In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked.

Lea and Ava travel from Paris, where Lea meets her soulmate, to a convent in western France known for its silver roses; from a school in a mountaintop village where three thousand Jews were saved. Meanwhile, Ettie is in hiding, waiting to become the fighter she’s destined to be.
What does it mean to lose your mother? How much can one person sacrifice for love? In a world where evil can be found at every turn, we meet remarkable characters that take us on a stunning journey of loss and resistance, the fantastical and the mortal, in a place where all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is never ending. 

I've read several of Hoffman's other novels, and her prose never fails to delight, even at the most horrific and painful times in her novels, the lush and powerful sentences flow along the silken plot like a river of chocolate. But it's Hoffman's ability to create unforgettable characters that really make her stories shine, and this book is no exception. Not only could I not put the book down once I started it, but, like all good art, just reading this story changed me, made me laugh and cry and feel for these people caught in the vile and hideous machine that was the Third Reich of fascist Germany. We must never forget the Holocaust, and how evil people nearly obliterated an entire group of human beings merely because they were Jewish. At any rate, I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone and everyone who can read. It's worth the time and money (or just the time if you get a copy from the library), believe me.

Secrets of the Chocolate House by Paula Brackston is a fantasy fiction novel with a romantic subplot and a whiff of The Time Traveler's Wife about it. While I enjoyed it, I felt that the protagonist Xanthe, was sometimes a bit too stupid to live, and kept getting herself into situations where she was way in over her head, when she should have had the sense to know enough to plan things better, with an escape route. Here's the blurb:

The second novel in a bewitching series "brimming with charm and charisma" that will make "fans of Outlander rejoice!" (Woman's World Magazine)

New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston’s The Little Shop of Found Things was called “a page-turner that will no doubt leave readers eager for future series installments” (Publishers Weekly). Now, Brackston returns to the Found Things series with its sequel, Secrets of the Chocolate House.
After her adventures in the seventeenth century, Xanthe does her best to settle back into the rhythm of life in Marlborough. She tells herself she must forget about Samuel and leave him in the past where he belongs. With the help of her new friends, she does her best to move on, focusing instead on the success of her and Flora’s antique shop.
But there are still things waiting to be found, still injustices needing to be put right, still voices whispering to Xanthe from long ago about secrets wanting to be shared.
While looking for new stock for the shop, Xanthe hears the song of a copper chocolate pot. Soon after, she has an upsetting vision of Samuel in great danger, compelling her to make another journey to the past.
This time she'll meet her most dangerous adversary. This time her ability to travel to the past will be tested. This time she will discover her true destiny. Will that destiny allow her to return home? And will she be able to save Samuel when his own fate seems to be sealed?

Brackston's prose is good, but a bit too ornate at times for my taste (if it were a dress it would have frills and bows). The story at the center of the novel, about the morality of "time spinning" to save certain people in history, is an intriguing one, and the romances of the main character with the man in her current century vs the man who lived 500 years in the past are a bit distraught. I was also not a fan of the cliffhanger ending. But, as I really don't want to go through all the anxiety of the main character again, I won't be reading the next novel in the series to find out what happens to our intrepid heroine. I'd give this book a B- and recommend it to fans of Outlander, or the Time Traveler's Wife.

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore is a YA retelling of the Red Shoes fairy tale in feudal Germany and with the Romani/travelers as the main protagonists. Here's the blurb:

With Anna-Marie McLemore's signature lush prose, Dark and Deepest Red pairs the forbidding magic of a fairy tale with a modern story of passion and betrayal.
Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.
Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.
"McLemore is at her finest... She writes open-heartedly about families found and families given, the weight of expectation and the price of duty, and in the end offers up something that's vibrant, wondrously strange, and filled to the brim with love of all kinds." ―Booklist, starred review
"McLemore weaves in powerful themes of identity, family, and first love, but there are also much-needed messages about overcoming hurtful stereotypes and expectations. McLemore's poignant retelling is a must-read for fans of fantasy and fairy tales." ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Lavinia is called Lala for most of the book, and Lala is a very bright young woman who tries her best to save her family during a time when threats of burning witches was an everyday fear. Much like the Jewish people, the "Gypsies" as the Romani were then called, were thought to be witches because they had healing knowledge of herbs and were often called upon to be midwives and weavers/dyers in the villages where they settled. I laud the author for having Alifair be a transgender character and for others in the village to be gay/lesbian or bisexual. Rosella's story didn't entrance me as much as Lala's did, but it was still interesting, and helped her learn about herself and her heritage. The prose is pretty, often meandering, but always comes back to the intricate plot, which doesn't lag, thankfully. I'd give this novel a B+ and recommend it to anyone who likes Romani tales and LGBTQ stories with unexpected endings.