Tortilla Curtain

Tortilla Curtain (US cover)
US edition cover
Author	T. C. Boyle
Cover Artist	Neil Stuart
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Viking Press
Released	1995
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	368 p. (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-670-85604-5 (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	Without a Hero
Followed by	Riven Rock

The Tortilla Curtain (1995) is a novel by U.S. author T.C. Boyle about middle-class values, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. Of the ten novels Boyle has written so far, The Tortilla Curtain has turned out to be his most successful. Image File history File links BoyleTortillaCurtainUS.jpg Summary Cover of Tortilla Curtain (US version) Licensing This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who drew the cover or the publisher of the book. ... Image File history File links BoyleTortillaCurtainUS.jpg Summary Cover of Tortilla Curtain (US version) Licensing This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who drew the cover or the publisher of the book. ... T. Coraghessan Boyle (T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose. ... Viking Press was founded on March 1, 1925, in New York City, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... T. Coraghessan Boyle (T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. ... everybody in the world is so cool yeah see ya later This article is about the socio-economic class from a global vantage point; for the middle class in the US see American middle class; for the band see Middle Class. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Morality. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Look up xenophobia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ... The historic Blue Marble photograph, which helped bring environmentalism to the public eye. ...

Plot summary

The Tortilla Curtain is the story of two couples who have nothing whatsoever in common except the fact that they live in the same area. The two people the quote from The Grapes of Wrath alludes to are Cándido and América, two young Mexicans who have illegally entered the United States and who are dreaming of the good life in their own little house somewhere in California. Meanwhile, they are homeless and camping in the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles, in the hills above Malibu. Another couple, Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, have also recently moved to Topanga, in order to be closer to nature yet to enjoy the amenities of city life. Wealthy, health-conscious people, Kyra is a successful real estate agent while Delaney keeps house, looks after Kyra's son by her first marriage and writes a regular column for an environmentalist magazine. This article is about a town in Los Angeles County. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... The Malibu pier near the famous Surfrider Beach Dawn in the Santa Monica Mountains The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in central Malibu The Paradise Cove pier in Malibu Malibu is a city located in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. ... The historic Blue Marble photograph, which helped bring environmentalism to the public eye. ...

Tortilla Curtain (German cover)

The two couples' paths cross unexpectedly when Cándido is hit and injured by Delaney, who is driving his car along the suburban roads near his home. For different reasons, each man prefers not to call the police or an ambulance, and Delaney soothes his conscience by giving Cándido some money to be treated for his injuries. From that moment on, the lives of the two couples are constantly influenced by the other through various acts leading the novel on. Image File history File links BoyleTortillaCurtainEu. ... Image File history File links BoyleTortillaCurtainEu. ... Housing subdivision near Union, Kentucky, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. ...

After the accident, Cándido's problems deepen. With América pregnant, his shame at not being able to get a job and procure a home and food for his family increases, especially when América decides to find some illegal--and possibly dangerous--work herself. At one point in the novel, they have to go through the trash cans behind a convenience store so as not to starve. A pregnant woman near the end of her term Pregnancy is the carrying of one or more embryos or fetuses by female mammals, including humans, inside their bodies. ... Shame is a psychological condition and a form of religious, political, judicial, and social control consisting of ideas, emotional states, physiological states and a set of behaviors, induced by the consciousness or awareness of dishonor, disgrace, or condemnation. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A female child during the Nigerian-Biafran war of the late 1960s, shown suffering the effects of severe hunger and malnutrition. ...

The Mossbachers are also having problems, though of an altogether different nature. Comfortably settled in their new home, they are faced with the cruelty of nature when one of their two pet dogs is killed by a coyote. Also, the majority of inhabitants of their exclusive estate feel increasingly disturbed and threatened by the presence of, as they see it, potentially criminal illegal aliens and vote for a wall to be built around the whole estate. Binomial name Canis latrans Say, 1823 The coyote (Canis latrans, meaning barking dog) also prairie wolf [2]) is a member of the Canidae (dog) family and a relative of the domestic dog. ...

Candido has a stroke of luck when, at a grocery store, he is given a free turkey by another customer, who has just won it in the store's Thanksgiving promotion. When, back in their shelter, Cándido starts roasting the bird, he inadvertently causes a fire which spreads so quickly that even the gated community the Mossbachers live in has to be evacuated. Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks, traditionally to God, for the things one has at the close of the harvest season. ... Just-lit match Fire is a self-sustaining oxidation process accompanied by heat and light in the form of a glow or flames. ... Entrance to a guard-gated community (Paradise Village Grand Marina Villas, Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico). ...

In the midst of the escalating disasters, América gives birth to a daughter, whom she suspects might be blind. But the couple of course have no money to have little Soccoro (Spanish: help) examined by a doctor.

Time and again in the novel, however, it is hinted at that the real perpetrators can be found inside rather than outside the projected wall: well-to-do people insensitive to the plight of the have-nots; WASP racists afraid of being overrun by Latinos and of the end of white supremacy; business people employing illegal immigrants to maximise their own profit without caring for the social security of those who work for them; and convicts posing as honourable members of society. Suborder Symphyta Apocrita See text for families. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... This article deals with the use of the term Latino. ... White supremacy is a racist ideology which holds that the white people are superior to other races. ... Profit, from Latin meaning to make progress, is defined in two different ways. ... Social security primarily refers to a field of social welfare concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment, families with children and others. ...

Literary significance & criticism

The Tortilla Curtain is often read by language classes in high schools all over the world to examine the topic of immigration and the gap between rich and poor. It has been suggested that Teaching English as a Second Language be merged into this article or section. ...

Boyle himself says that when it first came out it was

...my most controversial novel. Because it dealt with a hot-button socio-political issue -- illegal immigration in Southern California -- many of the reviewers came into the book with strong prejudices. I took a good deal of abuse, including (my favorite instance) being called "human garbage" on a call-in radio show in San Francisco. As people have had a chance to think about the book more deeply over the course of the past few years, the furor has died down and The Tortilla Curtain has become a modern classic, by far my most popular title, widely read in high schools and universities around the country.

The book consciously evokes the Steinbeck of The Grapes of Wrath, and opens with an epigraph from that novel: Southern California Downtown Los Angeles Skyline Southern California, sometimes abbreviated SoCal or colloquially, the Southland, is an informal name for the megalopolis and nearby desert that occupies the southern-most quarter of the U.S. state of California. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) is one of the best known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. ... The Grapes of Wrath is a work of fiction written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. ...

They ain't human. A human being wouldn't live like they do. A human being couldn't stand it to be so dirty and miserable. [1]

Book information

Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle

• Hardcover – ISBN 0-670-85604-5 (1995, First Edition)
• Hardcover – ISBN 1-56895-287-2 (1996, Large Type Edition)
• Paperback – ISBN 0-14-023828-X (1996)

A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

Similar/Related Works

• In Bharati Mukherjee's novel Jasmine (1989), a young Indian woman living as an illegal alien in the United States tries to make ends meet.
• American musical group Eddie From Ohio's song "Cándido & América" is based on the novel.

Bharati Mukherjee (born July 27, 1940) is an Indian-American fiction writer and university professor currently teaching at the English Department of the University of California, Berkeley. ... Jasmine (1989) is a novel by Bharati Mukherjee set in the present about a young Indian woman in the United States who, trying to adapt to the American way of life in order to be able to survive, changes identities several times. ... See also: 1988 in literature, other events of 1989, 1990 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Eddie From Ohio (or often just EFO) is an American folk band. ...

External links

• The Tortilla Curtain Project
• A collection of the best online resources on "The Tortilla Curtain" for students and teachers.