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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
Couldn't finish this one, was listening to the audio and just lost interest. Yes Boyle is commenting on the state of wealthy Americans and the struggling immigrants and I get the point of it all, but I guess I'm in the mood for something happy.
And seriously, do you know how hard it is for me to leave a book half-way through?
Summary: The lives of two different couples--wealthy Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, and Candido and America Rincon, a pair of Mexican illegals--suddenly collide, in a story that unfolds from the shifting viewpoints of the various characters
And seriously, do you know how hard it is for me to leave a book half-way through?
Summary: The lives of two different couples--wealthy Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, and Candido and America Rincon, a pair of Mexican illegals--suddenly collide, in a story that unfolds from the shifting viewpoints of the various characters
No idea how to rate this book. Loved the writing. The story was heart wrenching. Characters were well developed. Some broke my heart, others made me angry. So many things to make it a great book. But, I hated how there was no ending. It just stopped. It was not even a cliffhanger. It felt like the author died when he was in the middle of writing a chapter and they published it anyway. So incredibly annoying.
Easily one of the worst books I've ever forced myself to finish. I tried so hard to find something good in it but it just beat me down until I was as hopeless as all the characters in it. (So if that's what the author was going for, he succeeded.)
Accurate and effective social commentary showing both sides of the immigration debate. No person or group is all good or all bad.
Just a constant juggernaut of tragedy upon tragedy from the opening pages to the closing pages.
Book was okay. Hear it is supposed to be a movie with Kevin Costner playing the of Delaney Mossbacher. I picture this more of a Richard Dreyfus role.
I had high hopes for this one.
I love books set in Los Angeles, particularly when they focus on the great divide between the haves and the have-nots. Because that's a thing. However, The Tortilla Curtain was so burdened by its depiction of stereotypical Angelenos vs. stereotypical immigrants that the plot suffered. The writing is strong, and I got a good chuckle over a character using a Thomas Guide to get around town (ah, the pre-smartphone era!), but overall the book left me feeling empty. Was that the point? Maybe.
My quest for the perfect based-in-L.A. book continues...
I love books set in Los Angeles, particularly when they focus on the great divide between the haves and the have-nots. Because that's a thing. However, The Tortilla Curtain was so burdened by its depiction of stereotypical Angelenos vs. stereotypical immigrants that the plot suffered. The writing is strong, and I got a good chuckle over a character using a Thomas Guide to get around town (ah, the pre-smartphone era!), but overall the book left me feeling empty. Was that the point? Maybe.
My quest for the perfect based-in-L.A. book continues...
I've had this book on my shelf for some time but kept not picking it up because I live in the Southwest and figured, "yeah, I know this story". Yet still I kept it on the shelf, for reasons not totally clear. Finally, after several friends recommended Boyle's work, I started in on it. To my surprise, I was caught up very quickly in the story. Yes, a lot of the concepts and subject matter (not to mention characters) are very familiar to me, but I found that a comfort. I was reading about home (while on vacation out-of-state no less) and Boyle really captured the American Southwest and the often unpleasant interaction of whites and illegal Mexican immigrants. The immigrants run into what should be an unbelieveable string of bad luck; event after horrible event, one crisis after another, all the way up to the end. I was able to suspend my disbelief, though, because I know such horrid things can happen and who's to say they couldn't all overwhelm one family? In all, a powerful book that really captures the immigrant situation. Not lighthearted at all, but an important and sympathetic read.
I have to think about this book a bit....but off the top of my head I really didn't like it. It seemed to me that the characters started off perhaps being ignorant, but they weren't racist....by the end of the novel it seemed that all sides had turned so racist. There was little hope for anyone....not from page one and certainly not on the last page either....I kept waiting for someone...ANYONE to do the right thing....but it never happened. Yes, one can say that bit at the end....but I disagree....I think it was reflex and something that happened without thinking....it seemed that anytime a character took the time to think about their circumstances that it never ended positive. Only America seemed to think things out and look for the positive....but life certainly wore that poor lady down, didn't? If Candido had time to think at the end, I believe he would not have reacted as he did...that's right....I think he simply reacted to the situation....