Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
This book will stick with you, and it's a very powerful and horrifying story. I felt a lot of empathy for all the characters, especially the two lead male characters who are brilliantly written, with lots of realistic glimpses into their thoughts and behaviors. But if shedding light on privilege and poverty in California was the "goal" of this book, so to speak, then I'm not sure who the target audience is. I picked up this book because I already felt a sort of empathy, or at the very least a sort of concerned curiosity, towards especially the most desperate of Mexican immigrants, and this book was nothing if not a sort of critique of people who lack such empathy, and a study of how human prejudice can warp and evolve.
harsh view of do-gooders in S. Cal. and the illegals that inhabit the hills behind their million dollar homes. The only character I really liked in the book was the cat...and we all know what happened to her.
Depressing and made me angry at almost every chapter. Felt like Delaneys spiral at the end was more than a tad unrealistic. A lot of slow moving to speed forward in the last 20 or so pages. Didn’t feel like it shed too much light on the subject of immigration. A little theatrical and superficial and not much character development.
The plot might make for a decent movie, but it wasn't a very well-written book.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoy TV Boyle immensely as a writer, but The Tortilla Curtain is a difficult entry point. His stock in trade is taking a wry look at unusual situations, infusing them with humour and irony but retaining the structure and sensibility of a conventional story, but this book is slightly more complicated. It follows two individuals on opposite sides of the US immigration debate in the 1980s: Delaney, a privileged, liberal Californian on an exclusive development and Candido, a Mexican who has smuggled himself and his pregnant wife into the US. The story switches between the two and the ways their lives interact, and there is subtlety in the way their viewpoints develop: we see Delaney's liberal facade broken down by the way immigration impacts his lifestyle and we lose sympathy for Candido as his actions impact the lives of the community around him. The Tortilla Curtain invites us to see the humans behind the political debate, and is smartly drawn in that respect, but you still suspect many of Candido's behaviours and assertions are in danger of representing lazy cultural tropes, none more so than when he eats a cat. The book is written as masterfully as you would expect from Boyle, and has some fascinating period detail, but the overarching flaw is its sheer bleakness: while the characters may be warmly drawn and the landscape vividly painted, there is no tragedy that does not befall these characters and you end up simply losing hope long before the end.
dark
I read this while in a book club a few years back. Some rather ridiculous things happen to the characters, but it would still make any sensible person feel empathy for illegal immigrants. It has been a while, but I remember the working and not getting ahead, the lack of personal security, the risk that women in particular face, the strains on relationships, the racism/xenophobia (whatever), and the unbelievable sacrifice at the end. Where is the justice in this life? (Note that it doesn't feel like a political book).
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Holy smokes, that is a novel. I was not expecting the depth and the reality of this book, but wow! Boyle has conjured life at the southern border of the United States and juxtaposed the realities of immigration with the concept of animal invasion against a backdrop of classism and climate change. I mean, really, this book has it all and it’s deafening in how it shows the interconnectedness of all forms of life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Classism, Deportation
