A few years ago, the Sierra Club refused to take a stand against illegal immigration as a threat to the environment of California. It was simply too politically incorrect. In fact to those who want to be totally politically correct, they aren't illegal immigrants at all. They are "workers without proper documentation". What the Sierra Club refused to tackle, author T. C. Boyle takes on with brilliance.

The Tortilla Curtain in the tradition of great novels sets up the essential clashes of mankind: rich vs. poor, survival of the body vs. the needs of the soul, man vs. the earth, even the wild animals battle the domestic ones. In the world of Topanga Canyon, we see the fundamental struggles of both California and the United States.

Delaney Mossbacher lives in an upper middle class tract development on the slopes of Topanga Canyon, set between the mega-rich of the Malibu coast and the middle class of the San Fernando Valley. He writes a monthly environmental column called "Pilgrim at Topanga Creek". He lives off his comfortable trust fund, drives a Lexus to do his recycling and cooks gourmet organic foods. His wife, Kyra, is a work-driven realtor obsessed with property values.

Candido and America Rincon are Mexican illegals. They live in a makeshift campsite near Topanga Creek, just below the high six-figure mini-mansions of Delaney's development. Of necessity they leave litter and garbage in the canyon and start dangerous and illegal campfires in the brittle dry scrub. They speak no English, have no education or skills and are expecting a baby in a few months.

The book begins by putting Delaney and Candido on a collision course literally and figuratively. Delaney is on his way to the recycling center when he strikes and injures Candido on Topanga Canyon Road. Here is how author Boyle describes it:

The whole thing happened so quickly. One minute he was winding his way up the canyon with a backseat full of newspapers, mayonnaise jars and Diet Coke cans for the recycler, thinking nothing, absolutely nothing, and the next thing he knew the car was skewed across the shoulder in a dissipating fan of dust. The man must have been crouching in 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 car had stalled, the air conditioner blowing full, the voice on the radio nattering on about import quotas and American jobs. The man was gone. Delaney opened his eyes and unclenched his teeth. The accident was over, already a moment in history.

This book sets up the hypocrisy of a California in which people shake their heads over illegal immigration as their grass is being mowed by an "undocumented worker". A California in which the tract developments build walls and gates to keep out the very "undesirables" who are pouring the concrete for those walls and gates.

This book is brilliant social commentary, especially for those of us in Southern California. Living near Topanga Canyon, I could see everything described: The rocky hills, the scrub oaks, the winding roads. This book could have taken its topic from today's headlines in the L. A. Times: the environment or people. Development or open space. Affordable housing for people's bodies or wild lands for their souls. Land for people or for bobcats, deer and wildflowers. Both are worthy goals. Neither Delaney or Candido are to blame for the conflict. It's a conflict without any easy answers.

Boyle has no answer either. The book's ending (which I won't spoil for you here) is basically one in which Mother Earth says "A pox on both your houses". And Boyle never addresses root causes such as overpopulation or the long standing corruption of the Mexican government and its failure to take care of its own people.

Nevertheless this is a great book that has kept me thinking weeks after I finished it. Look for it. It's the best novel on the current state of California I've ever read.

Recommended: Yes