markk

This article popped up in my Pocket feed this morning, and I found it an engrossing read. To me a story of an editor with a history of acquiring culturally insensitive books purchasing a novel about a Mexican woman from an author who is belatedly identifying as Hispanic based on a quarter Puerto Rican ancestry points to the validity of every trope about out-of-touch media elites. Cummings's own comment in the author's note suggests that she was well aware of what lines she was crossing, yet instead of acknowledging that there might be others better suited to write the story she envisioned she decided to write it anyway.

And yet the whole thing seems to have little to dent the book's sales or (more importantly) to prompt publishers to announce a greater effort to publish novels by Latinx authors. It all makes me wonder if this controversy was just a clever part of Macmillan's marketing strategy.