THE TORTILLA CURTAIN by T. Corraghessan...

THE TORTILLA CURTAIN by T. Corraghessan Boyle (Penguin: $11.95, 355 pp.). Boyle juxtaposes the lives of two couples in a mordant depiction of the ethnic and class distinctions that divide contemporary Los Angeles. Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead a “yupscale” life in Topanga Canyon that balances a surfeit of material goods against a spiritual void. Hidden in the nearby brush are Candido and America Rincon, Mexican illegals who hope to find their equally materialistic vision of the American Dream.

Boyle is unsparing in his depiction of both the hypocrisy of the Haves and the bitter anger of the Have-Nots. Kyra and Delaney love living close to nature--until a coyote carries off their lap dogs; Candido’s resentment of the wealthy springs not from a belief in social justice but from the desire to equal their material wealth.

Boyle’s best recent novel, “The Tortilla Curtain,” is a devastating portrait of the economic rift that makes Southern California resemble a Third World country, uneasily partitioned between the rich and very poor.