The Tortilla Curtain (Penguin Books with Reading Guides)

Really a study in values. Los Angeles nouveau riche and the impoverished undocumented. A very engaging tale of predation among the denizens of both groups as well as the fight between the groups. Powerful story with a terribly sad result.

More than anything, The Tortilla Curtain really hit the nail on the head describing the hearts, minds, and attitudes of most good Mexican people. Bottom line, regardless of what people think (free medical, schools, etc..), first generation illegals don't have it easy in the United States.

A real page turner and thought provoking, well written on a very important topic of what to do about illegal immigration, and current values of the well to do. One should sympathize with the human tragedy and plight of illegals after reading this. Raw at times but realistic.

The Tortilla Curtain
If I didn't have to read this book for school I would not have finished reading it. Just a book where the author is constantly throwing misfortune after misfortune at the characters and when things start looking up just more misfortune to be found. There was also no real ending, it felt like the author just ran out of ideas and didn't know how to end the book and just through in a mudslide to end everything and leave it up to the reader to make up their own ending. I don't expect a fairy tale ending but at least an ending where all loose ends are tied and not an open ending.

This is a moving story and I highly recommend it. I had read it my freshman year of college and recently repurchased it to read it again. Pass the book around after you finish it, everyone should experience it.

Very engaging. As soon as I started, I was sucked right in and didn't want to put it down. It seemed especially pertinent to me, living in the AZ area, where immigration is always such a hot button issue. Would recommend it to anyone, though.

This is a story about two families from different walks of life whose paths cross in strange ways. One is a illegally immigrant couple from Mexico and the other is a affluent liberal couple in California. After reading this book, I had a different perspective on each side's point of view that I think would benefit everyone in this country to have....

The character development gave such an inside view of their lives, like a peek at a world we see all the time but don't know the stories of the homeless Mexican illegal immigrants working to survive. Amazing book!

The baseline of this story is great; however, the white people lacked depth and were extremely shallow. The writer, one of the main characters, was surprisingly simple minded. I'm not sure what T.C. Boyle meant by this, but it really flattened a story that had a lot of potential. I kept thinking I would get more. Read some Barbara Kingsolver and enjoy the layers of writing...

I admittedly read this novel a few years ago already but liked it so much that I wanted to have it on my new Kindle. It is a great, eye-opening book about the social differences between the upper middle class and the Mexican migrant (and illegal) workers in the greater Los Angeles area. What a young, pregnant Mexican woman goes through just to make some ends meet is harrowing. Parallel to her and her husband's story we see how the others, i.e. a successful real estate agent, live and how they too have their own set of problems. I found "the Tortilla Curtain" fascinating!

This book was selected for my book club. I couldn't get past the first half a dozen chapters. The only person I liked was the Mexican lady, America, and maybe the wife of the rich guy. The rich guy - what a horse's a**. The Mexican guy - only slightly better, and I'm not even sure about that. Raised some interesting issues and heated discussion for the book club, but ... This is only the second book that I didn't finish in over 18 months of being in my club. That ought to tell you something. BTW: A friend told me the ending and I said "you've got to be kidding." It sucked too.

This book was assigned reading for my school this year and we were required to buy it. It was a good story, and I read through it quickly, as I am an avid fan of realistic fiction, however I found the story hard to believe and it was not very well written. The book was obviously supposed to be a political statement, however, none of the characters came off as likable and the ending seemed rushed and unsatisfying. Overall, it was an okay read, but I wouldn't recommend it to others.

While this novel is a great read from a sociologist's perspective, this is definitely not a light read. It took me almost a week to get through, and the end was no lighter than the beginning. While the tragedies the characters suffer through are very real, the way they happen are just too hard for suspension of disbelief. The characters themselves were somewhat developed, but Cándido, América, and Kyra only had one or two drives motivating them to do whatever they did, while Delaney had multiple reasons backing his choices. Maybe this is because Boyle related to him the most, but nevertheless, Delaney was the only character who was truly complex, and his internal battle with his beliefs was fascinating to watch. If you are into dark social stratification told from two opposite sides of the economic spectrum, this is the book for you, but if you're looking for a light, pleasant read, look elsewhere.