Review of The Tortilla Curtain

The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In The Tortilla Curtain, author T.C. Boyle brings us a modern retelling of Voltaire's seminal work Candide. The story focuses on two diametrically opposed couples and the changing demographics of suburban Los Angeles--namely, the varied consequences (positive and negative) of undocumented immigration. Just as Candide was enduring one malady after another while bumbling toward El Dorado, so, too, does each husband in his respective journey.

This is a thought-provoking satire that challenges what white suburban xenophobes believe about "illegal aliens" who enter the U.S. through its Mexican border. It is fascinating to see how Delaney, a self-proclaimed New York liberal and environmental activist, steadily turns against the Mexicans thanks to chance encounters with Candido. While he is suffering relatively minor misfortunes comparatively speaking, Delaney finds his life gradually becoming more and more disrupted by the actions and influence of Mexican immigrants, or so he perceives. But were immigrants responsible for the coyote that attacks the family dog?

The real hero of the story is Candido, who, like his namesake, is subjected to a Jobean-level of tragedy and misfortune and yet maintains (at times) "the best of all possible worlds" optimism that keeps him moving forward. Not only does he unwittingly trigger Delaney's downward spiral into rage by becoming a hood ornament, Candido manages to persevere through homelessness, robbery, relocation and the constant, looming threat of La Migra. He loses some sense of personal pride when his wife America is forced to climb out of the canyon to work while he recovers from the accident. Any stroke of luck is followed almost immediately castastrophe, each bigger than the last. Candido proves remarkably resiliant and prescient and ingeneous and resourceful, and yet is impossibly hapless, too.

America broods, as she is expecting Candido's child and has no one else she can rely upon in el Norte. After a series of calamities befalls the couple, America yearns to return to Mexico, where she could at least live with her father. Time and time again, however, she regains her husband's (misguided?) optimism and still wants to have that idyllic home and American Dream existence.

Boyle uses Delaney and his realtor wife Kyra's Arroyo Blanco development as a metaphor for the "protectionists" who want to keep out "the Mexicans"--meaning all Latin American immigrants--by building a gate and then a wall, just like the efforts to build a physical barrier along the Mexican border. Of course, the Arroyo Blanco wall proves a mere obstacle for those it is meant to keep out, while it succeeds at restricting the lives of those who live within its confines.

Overall, this is an enjoyable and darkly entertaining novel, one that skillfully takes a pointed look at racism while reflecting on the fact one's happiness is derived from his perception of his world. Definitely a book worth reading--I would definitely entertain the idea of using this book in the classroom.







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