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| View Larger Image | The Tortilla Curtain
by T. Coraghessan Boyle
| | List Price: | $15.00 | | Price: | $10.20 | | You Save: | $4.80 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 2368 | | Studio: | Penguin Books | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 355 | | Publication Date: | September 01, 1996 | | Publisher: | Penguin Books |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Book Description
The author of East Is East replays the tragi-comic meeting of representatives from two different cultures with nothing in common. This book calmly grabs hold with an unexpected suspense. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 235 reviews)
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The Tortilla Curtain 
If the author was going to take on the issue of illegal immigration, then he should have taken it on fully and more robustly. The story is weak and cliche'. The character development of both the Mexicans and Americans is narrow minded and doesn't show the broader spectrum of people in this country or of those that come across the border. I have recommended to my book club not to waste their time on this book. Frankly, for someone unemployed, I'm angry I even spent money on this book.
August 25, 2008 | |
Hard Knocks For All 
T.C. Boyle's Tortilla Curtain refers to the slang term for the border between Southern California and Mexico. This book follows an illegal immigrant named Candido and a writer for an environmental magazine named Delaney. The book opens with Delaney hitting Candido with his car, but Candido sort of disappears and then Delaney is left wondering exactly what happened. Well, Candido can't work due to his injuries and his wife who came with him from Mexico (her name is America) tries to find work only to be abused in all sorts of ways. Candido now doubts his decision to come north of the border. He and America literally live in a canyon below Delaney's prosperous subdivision.
Delaney has his own problems, including a neighborhood turned skittish by roaming coyotes and suspected illegal immigrant break ins. A wall is to be built and Delaney as an environmentalist is not pleased with this as he thinks everyone is simply trying to hide from reality. But reality chases him down in the form of Candido and there is enough heartbreak to go around before this book is finished.
The book is strong medicine and yet doesn't offer a cure for the problem or the symptons. As much as the characters are stereotypes, they're also loaded with the baggage each side carries. Candido with his south of the border beliefs and sensibilities never seems to get traction in the world of the gringo. Delaney struggles with the consequences of his own principles as they paint him into a tighter and tighter corner.
T.C. Boyle hits the right buttons with this one, especially in the context of today's immigration issues.
August 17, 2008 | |
A closer view on immigration problems 
The author displays a very interesting contrast between americans and illegal immigrants. Touching, yet filled with humour, constant tension and amusing caracters, this is a book that you surely won't regret reading.
August 05, 2008 | |
Exploration of the Human Condition
An intelligent friend recommended this thought provoking novel as a must read, and I completely understand why. It's one of the best I've read in a long time. The story is riveting and the characters are very well drawn. The writing is so rich with description and flavor, it stimulates all the senses and reads like a work of art.
The Tortilla Curtain explores the lives of two families, one a middle class white couple living in a gated community in suburban LA, and the other an illegal Mexican immigrant and his young, pregnant wife. It portrays the vast differences in lifestyles and the feelings these two racial groups have toward one another as they coexist and attempt to survive day-to-day life.
Full of surprises and an unending string of bad luck, their lives are intertwined in such a way that it makes the reader consider their commonalities as much as their differences.
An accurate and extremely interesting portrayal of the human condition, the affects of illegal immigration, and in particular, what happens when a community tries to keep "them" out.
Highly recommend.
Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.
July 22, 2008 | |
Social Liberalism Unchecked 
This book is a sincere effort at trying to make all of the sane, law abiding people who live in the United States of America feel like we have done something wrong just by the fact that we were born in this country and continue to breath. It's a blatant promotion of illegal activity in the form of illegal migration into the USA. It's most offensive to the people who have legally immigrated into the United States, meaning most of us but especially the Latino (Mexican) people. It's irritating that it's being crammed down the throats of students in Southern California to try and convince them that the laws and traditions of our nation are foolish and worthy of disregard.
This book is a must for the trash can.
March 03, 2008 | |
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