A review by pelks
The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, T.C. Boyle

3.0

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.