World Literature Today, June 22nd, 1996
T. Coraghessan Boyle's most recent novel, The Tortilla Curtain, takes its epigraph from The Grapes of Wrath: "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." In so doing, Boyle makes clear his intention to write a novel of social consequence. Although the work contains many vividly rendered scenes of contemporary life in California as its citizens struggle with the issue of immigration and also boasts Boyle's usual finely crafted prose, there is a predictability to the characters, their situation, and the ultimate, ir...
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