The Tortilla Curtain - by T C Boyle (Paperback)

About the Book

From the author of The Road to Wellville comes his most controversial novel yet--a deeply moving story of the men and women who risk everything to cross the Mexican border and invade the American dream. "Succeeds in stealing the front page news and bringing it home to the great American tradition of the social novel".--The Boston Globe.

Book Synopsis

T.C. Boyle's "irresistible" (Entertainment Weekly) classic bestseller, a tragicomic novel about assimilation, immigration, and the price of the American dream

"A masterpiece of contemporary social satire." --The Wall Street Journal

WINNER OF THE PRIX MÉDICIS ÉTRANGER

Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead an ordered sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community: he a sensitive nature writer, she an obsessive realtor. Undocumented immigrants Cándido and América Rincón desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine. And from the moment a freak accident brings Cándido and Delaney into intimate contact, these four and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a dramatic comedy of error and prejudice.

Review Quotes

Winner of the Prix Medicis Etranger

"A compelling story of myopic misunderstanding and mutual tragedy."
--Chicago Tribune

"Succeeds in stealing the front page news and bringing it home to the great American tradition of the social novel . . . A book to appreciate as we peer at the faces of strangers outside our windows, and wall ourselves in."
--The Boston Globe

"Lays on the line our national cult of hypocrisy. Comically and painfully he details the smug wastefulness of the haves and the vile misery of the have-nots."
--Barbara Kingsolver, The Nation

"Boyle's writing is irresistible and his sense of dramatic timing is impeccable."
--Entertainment Weekly

"America's most imaginative contemporary novelist."
--Newsweek

"It says a lot about T. Coraghessan Boyle's new novel that so many generations of great satirists come to mind when reading it--from Swift to Twain to Waugh to Woody Allen, Boyle specifically evokes Voltaire."
--The Baltimore Sun

"Weaving social commentary into moving entertaining fiction is a job few writers can handle. Boyle does so here, admirably. Readers should not miss this latest work from an impressive talent."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Boyle's sixth novel cements his place among the reigning pantheon of contemporary American fiction writers. (It's one heck of a great read.)"
--Rocky Mountain News

"A panoramic slice of social realism . . . [that] incorporates all of Boyle's themes: the impossibility of assimilation, the need for control, the increasing helplessness of white males."
--Vogue

"A tale that squeezes one last cup of vinegar from The Grapes of Wrath."
--Portland Oregonian

About the Author

T. C. Boyle is a novelist and regular contributor to The New Yorker. His novels include World's End and The Tortilla Curtain, and he has also published numerous collections of short stories. A Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California, he lives in Santa Barbara.