1 1

The Tortilla Curtain Spiral-Bound | 1996-09-01

T.C. Boyle

★★★☆☆+ from 10,001 to 50,000 ratings

$18.59 - Free Shipping
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.
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 368 pages
ISBN-10: 014023828X
Item Weight: 0.5 lbs
Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 7.8 inches
Customer Reviews: 3 out of 5 stars 10,001 to 50,000 ratings
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
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.