Robert Rampersaud, ‘Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck: My Bronca with Fake-Ass Social Justice Literature’ Formal Critique

Reviewer’s Name:  Robert Rampersaud

Title of Piece: Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck: My Bronca With Fake-ass Social Justice Literature

Author’s Name: Myriam Gurba

Enjoyed:

Plot:

Gurba did a great job mentioning her background of her grandfather being a Mexican publicist before starting to criticize ‘American Dirt’ that is about a Mexican mother and son.

Point of View:

The author did a great job describing her hate for the book by saying “the nicest thing I can say about ‘Dirt’ is that its pages ought to be upcycled as toilet paper, the editors hauled out the guillotine.”

Dialogue:

Gurba did a great job describing her awkwardness of reading ‘Dirt’ to her roommate dressed from head to toe in her clothes. Then describe her clothes as something she cannot wear anymore cause of the smell and seams were torn.

Setting and Context:

I like the way Gurba gives context on how difficult it was to read ‘Dirt’ by saying “I pinched my metaphorical nose and read.” This gives me a visual on how painful it was for her to read the book.

Questions:

Point of View:

Was there any positive point of view you had from ‘Dirt’ that could have shown a part of Mexico that people don’t see?

Plot:

Do you think Cummins only describing the bad part of Mexico give our current president strength on his political agenda for re-election?

Voice & Style:

Do you think Cummins should have talk about other people coming to the United States instead of basing it on a mother and her son?

Dialogue:

If Cummins was a Mexican Writer, do you think you would have viewed her work differently?