You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
I hate the Tortilla Curtain, and I'm probably never going to finish it. I've changed the status to "read," but that is only because it certainly isn't "to-read" and I haven't picked it up in a long time. Goodbye, Tortilla Curtain! It's been lame!
Read my full thoughts on this book and hundreds more over at Read.Write.Repeat.
This is a sobering book; it casts a harsh light on the hypocrisy of one class of Americans and the desperation of another class.
This is a sobering book; it casts a harsh light on the hypocrisy of one class of Americans and the desperation of another class.
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Here is a book that I feel I could read several times and still not get all of the many layers and themes it encompasses. It is the tale of 2 families, one affluent and White, one extremely poor and Mexican, and how their lives mixed.
Emotionally, it is a difficult read that addresses issues of homelessness, poverty, racism, rape, and other violence. It is a book I wish I could say is "total fiction", but unfortunately I cannot.
Very worthy of your time and thoughts.
Emotionally, it is a difficult read that addresses issues of homelessness, poverty, racism, rape, and other violence. It is a book I wish I could say is "total fiction", but unfortunately I cannot.
Very worthy of your time and thoughts.
This not only makes a good companion to The Grapes of Wrath, it also has much to say about our country's current mania for building walls and excluding refugees and immigrants. In this architectonic novel, Boyle keeps two parallel plots going, allowing them to briefly touch only a couple of times during the narrative, finally bringing them together at the end, once the tragedy is complete.
Set during the 1990s, when California was reacting badly to the influx of undocumented workers from Mexico (Trump administration take note: a wall is absolutely the wrong way to go), Boyle tracks the well-off Mossbacher family and their life in the soon-to-be-walled development of Arroyo Blanco, and a Mexican couple, hard-working Candido and pregnant America Rincon, whose struggles are a horrible combination of Job and Sisyphus.
People in the novel assume the worst about those who are different, with the usual awful results, and which, combined with two classically Southern California disasters, results in
Set during the 1990s, when California was reacting badly to the influx of undocumented workers from Mexico (Trump administration take note: a wall is absolutely the wrong way to go), Boyle tracks the well-off Mossbacher family and their life in the soon-to-be-walled development of Arroyo Blanco, and a Mexican couple, hard-working Candido and pregnant America Rincon, whose struggles are a horrible combination of Job and Sisyphus.
People in the novel assume the worst about those who are different, with the usual awful results, and which, combined with two classically Southern California disasters, results in
Spoiler
the death of Socorro, America and Candido's newborn infant.
Positives: Well written, the use of nature and a nature column is quite clever
Negative: graphic depictions of violence, one-dimensional unrealistic unlikeable characters, I think you're supposed to sympathise with a character who marries a child at the age of 33 and takes her to another country, and then constantly beats her. And as another person said, the depiction of hispanic characters isn't exactly complimentary. Also, the plot isn't really all that interesting, it's mostly just grim.
Negative: graphic depictions of violence, one-dimensional unrealistic unlikeable characters, I think you're supposed to sympathise with a character who marries a child at the age of 33 and takes her to another country, and then constantly beats her. And as another person said, the depiction of hispanic characters isn't exactly complimentary. Also, the plot isn't really all that interesting, it's mostly just grim.
This is the second time I read this book. The first time I put it down and did not finish. At times I found the book to be rather dull, and the female characters were not well developed. Also I found the end to be disappointing. I did like the two perspectives..the illegal immigrant and the American who considered himself to be open minded and a liberal.
A curiosity of a book, published in 1996 which undertakes some pretty heavy issues of immigration, illegal Mexicans, racism, safety, the American way. In 2010 this novel resonates heavily given the new laws in Arizona which target illegals and, moreover, anyone who looks like they could be illegal.
The story deals with two couples – Delaney and Kyra, a well-to-do Californian couple with a kid, a couple of yapper dogs and a cat, living in a community struggling to keep the riff-raff out, home prices up, be safe and enjoy the life they’ve worked hard to earn. Meet the other couple, America and Candido, illegal Mexicans who crossed the Tortilla Curtain (the US-Mexican porous border) risking their lives with the hope of making in a couple of months what would take all year to make in Mexico. They are robbed, swindled, lied to and worse – and that’s only by fellow Mexicans. They wind up living in a ravine just down from Delaney and Kyra’s house; living, though, is too strong a word, they merely survive, camping out with no running water nor shelter, hiding from the “migra” (immigration police) and other Mexican thugs willing to steal from anyone.
These two unlikely couples come in contact when Delaney hits Candido with his car; shocked, he reaches in his wallet and throws $20 at Candido as the Mexican hobbles away, terrified of going to a doctor as that would lead to deportation. As Candido lies in his campsite, tended to by his pregnant wife America, the full weight of what has happened falls on him, as not only can he not stand and walk, there is no way he can make it up the ravine and get any work. And so America, at 17 years old and pregnant goes to work. Meanwhile, Delaney, a naturalist broadminded kind of guy deals with his guilt while his wife works the neighborhood trying vehemently to get a wall built up around their subdivision and keep out coyotes – both of the 4 legged and 2 legged varieties.
Over the course of several weeks, events spiral terribly out of control. The couples, each in their own way, can’t seem to cut a break. If there is a weak spot in the book, it is this part of the plot, which is unrelenting and heavy.
This is not a book of clear cut characters. The plot is not black and white. Boyle succeeds in allowing the reading to ride the fence. At one point siding with the Americans and at others siding with the Mexicans. Both the Delayney and his wife Kyra, and Candido and America are trying to better their lives. They come to the reader quite flawed, and as such, at times hard to sympathize with, although the plight of Candido and America is gut-wrenching.
What Boyle doesn’t really explore in depth are the white Californians who hire illegal Mexicans, exploit them, use their cheap labor to build the walls that ultimately distance them. He lays it out throughout the novel, for the reader to decide on, there are no quick fixes, easy answers or tidy endings.
This book was first published in 1995, but with few minor adjustments it might as well have been published yesterday. The issues addressed are all still very relevant today, if anything, some if not most of them have exacerbated since its publication.
There is a growing border crisis (this time not only involving Mexican people, but people from all over Middle- and South America, Africans, Turkish people, even Ukranians), social disparity is on the rise, wildfires in California and climate change in general are becoming an ever bigger issue, not to speak of gun control (not a central topic, but it makes an appearance towards the end of the book).
I guess there are two ways to look at this. Complacently one could argue that these issues have been around for a long time and still the world goes on, these are issues we will always have to deal with, no use in being a doomsayer. On the other hand, it could be considered worrisome that after more than 25 years all these problems persist, arguably trending towards the wrong direction.
This book will make you reflect upon these issues. I guess let's check back in around 2050.
I both read the book and listened to the audiobook (which is read by the author) and I came to prefer the latter, I thought it was very well done, great listen.
There is a growing border crisis (this time not only involving Mexican people, but people from all over Middle- and South America, Africans, Turkish people, even Ukranians), social disparity is on the rise, wildfires in California and climate change in general are becoming an ever bigger issue, not to speak of gun control (not a central topic, but it makes an appearance towards the end of the book).
I guess there are two ways to look at this. Complacently one could argue that these issues have been around for a long time and still the world goes on, these are issues we will always have to deal with, no use in being a doomsayer. On the other hand, it could be considered worrisome that after more than 25 years all these problems persist, arguably trending towards the wrong direction.
This book will make you reflect upon these issues. I guess let's check back in around 2050.
I both read the book and listened to the audiobook (which is read by the author) and I came to prefer the latter, I thought it was very well done, great listen.