THE TORTILLA CURTAIN by Tom Coraghessan Boyle (hier online bestellen)
The story:
The story begins with a chance encounter when Delaney almost runs down Cándido in his car.
This triggers a chain of events that leads to an even more dramatic confrontation. The story switches
back and forth between the two couples and, in the process, looks at the issue of illegal immigration
from seemingly every point of view.
The book is about Mexicans in California right now. It explores the issue of illegal immigration
by examining the lives of four characters - two very well-off Californians, Delaney Mossbacher,
a nature writer, and his real estate agent wife, Kyra, and a Mexican couple, Cándido Rincón,
and his pregnant 17 year old wife, América, both illegal immigrants. The Mossbachers live in an
exclusive, secure community overlooking Topanga Canyon. Guess who lives in near starvation in the
bushes at the bottom of canyon.
About the author:
Tom Coraghessan Boyle was born in the suburbs of Manhattan in 1948. He has written five previuous novels:
Water Music, Budding Prospects, East is East, World's End and The Road to Wellville.
He is also the author of four collections of short stories, the latest of which is called Without a Hero.
He now lives near Santa Barbara in California.
Education:
Lakeland High School, Shrub Oak, NY, 1964; State University of New York at Potsdam, B.A. in English and History,
1968; University of Iowa, Iowa City, M.F.A. in Fiction 1974; Ph.D. in British Literature, 1977.
Extract from book:
"The whole thing had happened so quickly. One minute he (= Delaney Mossbacher) was winding his way up the canyon
with a backseat full of newsapers, mayonnaise jars and Diet Coke cans for the recycler, thinking nothing, absolutely
nothing, anmd the next thing he knew the car was skewed across the shoulder in a dissipating fan of dust. The man
(a Mexican) must have been crouching the the bushes like some feral thing, like a stray dog or bird-mauling cat, and
at the last possible moment he'd flung himself across the road in a mad suicidal scramble. There was the astonished
look, a flash of mustache, the collapsing mouth flung open in a mute cry, and then the brake, the impact, the marimba
rattle of the stones beneath the car, and finally, the dust. .......
The man winced, tried to move his head. Delaney saw now that the left side of the man's face - the side that had been
turned away from him - was raw, scraped and flensed like a piece of meat stripped from the hide.. And then he noticed
the man's left arm, the torn shirtsleeve and the skin beneath it stipled with blood and bits of dirt and leaf mold, and
the blood-slick hand that clutched a deflated paper bag to his chest. ....
Buchdaten:
The Tortilla Curtain
Sprache: Englisch
Broschiert - 355 Seiten - Bloomsbury
Erscheinungsdatum: 1996
ISBN: 0747529027
Preis: € 10,80
There is a teacher's guide to above novel, named T. C. Boyle - The Tortilla Curtain :
Unterrichtsmodell by Wiltrud Frenken, Angela Luz, Brigitte Prischtt
It is to be had at: 
More works from the same author:
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