The Tortilla Curtain in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Apr 21, 2010 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was ok

Shelves: literary-fiction, fiction, novels, contemporary, ultimate-reading-list

I had a hard time deciding what to rate this, because this is a book with flashes of brilliance and insight which ultimately I don't think works. The book follows two couples that live near each other in the outskirts of Los Angeles: one a rich white tofu-eating liberal American couple, Delaney and Kyra; the other two illegal immigrant Mexicans, Candido and America, squatting on public land.

The two families first come into contact when Delaney runs over Candido in his car. Candido is able to wa I had a hard time deciding what to rate this, because this is a book with flashes of brilliance and insight which ultimately I don't think works. The book follows two couples that live near each other in the outskirts of Los Angeles: one a rich white tofu-eating liberal American couple, Delaney and Kyra; the other two illegal immigrant Mexicans, Candido and America, squatting on public land.

The two families first come into contact when Delaney runs over Candido in his car. Candido is able to walk away from the accident--Delaney sops his conscience by giving Candido twenty dollars. Next we follow Candido down to where he's camped out with his pregnant wife. His desperate circumstances are effectively told, and the contrast and savage irony with Delaney's assumptions (and Delaney's own lyrical nature column on the glories of staying out in the wilderness) is priceless (which earned it the two stars). There are flashes of brilliant insight like that throughout the book, when Boyle is able to hold out contemporary Americans' assumptions and prejudices to a bright satiric light that kept me reading. The book is well-paced, a page-turner, and I enjoyed Boyle's voice and style. I felt mixed about Boyle's characterization of the Mexican couple at times--feeling there's something a bit too facile and caricatured about his characterizations that depended too much on a sprinkling of Spanish and bits of cultural trivia.

But what ruined this book for me were the twists and turns of plot. This book had the potential to humanize the plight of the illegal immigrant, but in the end I feel it's too easy to simply roll your eyes at Boyle's book and dismiss it because of the ridiculous pile-on of disasters. I almost put the book down twice at certain events and the conclusion made me want to throw the book against the wall.

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The two places I almost stopped reading? The first was the end of the first section, where America, the Mexican girl (and she is a girl, only 17) is brutally raped by two Mexican vagrants--which leads her to get syphilis, which going untreated causes her daughter to be born blind. The second instance when I almost put the book down unfinished? America gives birth in a shed and the cat that belongs to the American couple walks in and gives comfort to America during her labor. Candido then captures the cat, and swear to God, kills it and makes a stew of it. Twice this couple almost makes enough to make it out of the canyon and make a deposit on an apartment--twice a disaster wipes them out. (In one case, that being that Candido starts a raging fire that threatens the canyon's homes (and destroys one) when he cooks a Thanksgiving turkey he was gifted with. (And the conclusion is topped off with a flash flood where the baby dies). The American couple not only has their cat eaten by the Mexicans, they lose both their dogs to coyotes (which I believe are supposed to symbolize the unstoppable illegal immigration.) That's not even a full accounting of the disasters that affect both couples in a period of mere months. And that ultimately is why I found this book ridiculous. ...more

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Mar 17, 2010 Ann Begay rated it it was amazing

This novel revealed another side of the truth to me - truth, of course, always being under the relative microscope. TC Boyle delivers a current viewpoint on border immigration in a way that completely blindsides you and causes you to come to terms with your own racist views. In this book, Boyle gives the look and feel of things that most of us are afraid to talk about. He measures out a human's worth by juxtaposing it against another human's everyday values. This is a very worthwhile read. ...more

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Sep 03, 2010 Eli rated it it was ok

Following two couples, Mexican immigrants with nothing and Californian well-to-do liberals, this book is socially realistic and insightful. I would have given it a lot more stars if I hadn't read it while being pregnant (therefore making it one of the saddest things I've read in a long time!). ...more

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