Still Reading The Tortilla Curtain

Do you, folks, remember this hilarious guy they had on CNN a bunch of years ago? Lou Dobbs, or whatever? He had this crazy obsession with “scary, evil Mexicans.” Whatever the subject, he’d always manage to turn it to the subject of Mexicans. My sister and I used to joke that his wife must have cheated on him with a platoon of Mexican gardeners for him to be so hung up on them.

The way the author of The Tortilla Curtain writes reminds me of Lou Dobbs’s rants. The protagonist saw a coyote and that reminded him of Mexicans. He tripped on a stone and realized it must have been left on the path by hordes of Mexicans. He spilled his coffee and thought of Mexicans. The sun came up and the sky turned the color of Mexicans.

The writing is beyond heavy-handed because every single thing is a metaphor for, reminder of or hint at – yes, you guessed it – Mexicans. The novel’s author is the Lou Dobbs of literature. I wonder how much he donated to Trump’s campaign.