American Dirt’s problem is bad writing, not cultural appropriation | Nesrine Malik | Opinion | The Guardian

In the New York Times, a white reviewer agonised over whether it was her place to review such a book at all. "I could never speak to the accuracy of the book's representation of Mexican culture or the plights of migrants; I have never been Mexican or a migrant," Lauren Groff wrote. To her horror, she discovers that the writer herself is not Mexican nor a migrant.

This well-meaning nonsense got us, the readers, nowhere. The question that a review answers is simply, is the book any good? If it were a work of nonfiction, all these questions about identity, access and the problematic "white gaze" as Groff called it, become more relevant. But American Dirt is a novel, and a thriller at that, so the angst over the accuracy of its portrayal, rather than whether the world feels authentic, seems misplaced and forced.