Book Review: The Tortilla Curtain

In my mind, this book was too good to not talk about. I'm not sure if book reviews will become a part of this blog or not, but reading is something I enjoy that has not been reflected on this blog enough. I took a little break from reading regularly because I couldn't find a book that I really enjoyed, but The Tortilla Curtain got me rolling again.

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The Tortilla Curtain by Tom Coraghessan Boyle, in a nutshell, describes the lives of two distinctively different couples - one, an affluent husband and wife who live in a private hilltop community in Los Angeles, and the other, two Mexican illegals who have come to the States to search out the American dream. Their lives converge several times in unplanned, unfortunate and usually disastrous ways. 

Boyle uses flowery descriptive vocabulary to describe even the mundane; at times it felt almost superfluous but most of the time I found it to be captivating. 

To be honest, what I got from this book was not what I expected. I assumed that the upper-class family would run into the illegals, they would take them in, have them as their help staff and all would live happily ever after. If you are looking for a book with closure, pass on by. This book brings to life real racism and common stereotypes about illegal immigrants. Between those circumstances, natural disasters, language barriers, rape, judgement and being on the brink of starvation, how will the four characters ever come to a mutual understanding - a common existence?

Go read it. It's good. I found it at my library.

And now I'm signing off to go enjoy story time at the library, shopping at Target and then we're driving up to Camarillo to enjoy lots of friends and family on this Memorial weekend. 

See you Monday!