The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle

The Tortilla Curtain
by T. C. Boyle
$15.00

Paperback: 355 pages

Publisher: Penguin Books; First PB Printing edition (September 1, 1996)

ISBN-10: 014023828X

ISBN-13: 978-0140238280

Annotation/Flashtalk:

Meet the Mossbachers, Delaney, Kyra, and Jordan.  They are healthy vegetarians and nature lovers who live in the LA suburbs.  Meet the Rincons, Candido and America. They are illegal immigrants eating out of trashcans and living in the valley behind the Mossbachers neighborhood. Only in Los Angeles can two families living in such close proximity live such different lives while trying to live the American Dream.

Summary:

 T.C Boyle brings to literature the long-held, yet timely still, debate about illegal immigration in Southern California.  Boyle contrasts the typical suburban lives of the American-born Mossbachers to that of the immigrant Rincons working to scrape by getting work where they can find it, living in a makeshift camp in the valley behind the Mossbachers’ suburban neighborhood and the depths of desperation they will go to even eat. 

Boyle uses walls and coyotes to symbolically further the debate of illegal immigration. He compares the effectiveness of walls for keeping out coyotes to that of the border keeping out illegal immigrants.  He also likens the coyotes’ desperation for survival to that of the illegal immigrants and their quest to survive doing every that is necessary to live and eat and survive in hopes of eventually getting the chance to live the American dream.

Much like the existing debate, there seems to be no easy answers and neighbors are pitted against neighbors in this controversial question.

NOTE: Seems like it would make a very good book discussion

Genre/Subgenre: General Fiction

Evaluation: 3-stars.