The Tortilla Curtain (1995) is a novel by U.S. author T.C. Boyle about middle-class values, illegal immigration, a fear and hatred of foreigners, poverty, and environmental destruction. Of the twelve novels Boyle has written so far, The Tortilla Curtain has turned out to be his most successful.
Tortilla Flat (1935) is an early John Steinbeck novel set in Monterey, California. The novel was the author's first clear critical and commercial success. The book portrays with great sympathy and humour a group of paisanos - literally, countrymen - a small band of errant friends enjoying life and wine in the days after the end of the Great War. Tortilla Flat was made into a film in 1942. Steinbeck would later return to some of the panhandling locals of Monterey (though not the Spanish paisanos of the Flat) in his novel Cannery Row (1945).
