Helpful Score: 2
I read THE TORTILLA CURTAIN for the May 2015 pick in my neighborhood book club.
And what a dank, dreary and depressing book it is! I could never recommend it.
It started off interestingly enough with a white man accidentally running over a Mexican man in the street, giving him $20 and continuing on his way. It wasn't really his fault, the Mexican didn't want any help and barely spoke any English. But then it goes off into their individual stories (one depressing development after another, illustrating that while they were socioeconomically as different as can be, the two were much more alike than they were different) before having them cross paths again in the end for a depressingly washed out finish! Quite literally.
I give this book a C-. I found much of it easily skimmable. The narrative lacked any real focus and basically rendered itself pointless despite the point it apparently tried to make. Meh.
And what a dank, dreary and depressing book it is! I could never recommend it.
It started off interestingly enough with a white man accidentally running over a Mexican man in the street, giving him $20 and continuing on his way. It wasn't really his fault, the Mexican didn't want any help and barely spoke any English. But then it goes off into their individual stories (one depressing development after another, illustrating that while they were socioeconomically as different as can be, the two were much more alike than they were different) before having them cross paths again in the end for a depressingly washed out finish! Quite literally.
I give this book a C-. I found much of it easily skimmable. The narrative lacked any real focus and basically rendered itself pointless despite the point it apparently tried to make. Meh.
T.C. Boyle is one of those rare and unusual writers, you really have to experience him. This is a story about a liberal affluent couple in Southern California that has a close encounter with another couple who are illegal immigrants from Mexico. I recommend it to my friends frequently -- it's not your standard story.
This may be my new favorite author!!! I loved this book. It is incredibly well written and kept me turning the pages to see what happens next. There is such a great blend of humor and reality as we see the clash of two totally opposite lifestyles.. The tofu-eating environmentalist and the poor Mexican and his wife just struggling to survive... A great story by a very talented author.
i really enjoyed this book till I got 3/4 through it and by the time I got to the end I was thoroughly disappointed. It is a timely discussion, all about illegal immigration and that is what drew me to it. The basic premiss, I felt, was that its not good for anyone involved. I just think the book was very predictable and the author didnt quite know how to end it.
I have always liked Boyle's writing. This one is breathtakingly good. The difference between the haves and have not has been so well shown. I give it 5 stars.
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