The Tortilla Curtain
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The Tortilla Curtain
''The Tortilla Curtain'' is a 1995 novel by American author T.C. Boyle. It is about middle-class values, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. In 1997, it was awarded the French Prix Médicis Étranger prize for best foreign novel. Plot summary Cándido Rincón (33) and América (his pregnant common law wife, 17) are two Mexicans who enter the United States illegally, dreaming of a good life in their own little house somewhere in California. Meanwhile, they are homeless and camping at the bottom of the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles, in the hills above Malibu. Another couple, Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, have recently moved into a gated community on top of Topanga, in order to be closer to nature yet be close enough to the city to enjoy those amenities. Kyra is a successful real estate agent while Delaney keeps house, looks after Kyra's son by her first marriage and writes a regular column for an environmentalist magazine. The two cou ...
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Neil Stuart
Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. As a surname, Neil is traced back to Niall of the Nine Hostages who was an Irish king and eponymous ancestor of the Uí Néill and MacNeil kindred. Most authorities cite the meaning of Neil in the context of a surname as meaning "champion". Origins The Gaelic name was adopted by the Vikings and taken to Iceland as ''Njáll'' (see Nigel). From Iceland it went via Norway, Denmark, and Normandy to England. The name also entered Northern England and Yorkshire directly from Ireland, and from Norwegian settlers. ''Neal'' or ''Neall'' is the Middle English form of ''Nigel''. As a first name, during the Middle Ages, the Gaelic name of Irish origins was popular in Ireland and later Scotland. During the 20th century ''Neil'' began to be used in Engl ...
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Jasmine (novel)
''Jasmine'' is a novel by Bharati Mukherjee set in the 1980s about a young Indian woman in the United States who, trying to adapt to the American way of life in order to be able to survive, changes identities several times. Mukherjee's own experiences of dislocation and displacement in her life helps her in recording the immigrant experience of the protagonist in this novel. Plot summary ''Jasmine,'' which was based on an earlier short story in ''The Middleman and Other Stories,'' tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl widowed after her husband's murder in a bomb attack. She and her husband originally planned to move to Florida, but as a result of his death Jasmine continues with the trip on her own. In her path she faces many obstacles as she travels from Florida to New York City to Iowa. The novel begins with Jasmine retelling a story from her childhood about an astrologer who predicts her future as a widower living in exile. She fast forwards to life in Baden, Iowa wh ...
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Topanga, California
Topanga () (Tongva: ''Topaa'nga'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, the community exists in Topanga Canyon and the surrounding hills. The narrow southern portion of Topanga at the coast is between the city of Malibu, California, Malibu and the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census the population of the Topanga CDP was 8,560. The ZIP code is 90290 and the area code is primarily Area code 310, 310, with Area code 818, 818 only at the north end of the canyon. It is in the 3rd County Supervisorial district. History ''Topanga'' is the name given to the area by the Native American indigenous Tongva people, Tongva tribe, and may mean "where the mountain meets the sea" or "a place above." The name in the Tongva language, ''Topaa'nga'', has a root that likely comes from the Chumash language. It was the ...
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Novels Set In California
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ...
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Novels By T
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ...
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1995 American Novels
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strikes Kobe, Japan, killing 5,000-6,000 people; The Unabomber Manifesto is published in several U.S. newspapers; Gravestone, Gravestones mark the victims of the Srebrenica massacre near the end of the Bosnian War; Windows 95 is launched by Microsoft for Personal computer, PC; The first exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b, is discovered; Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Space station Mir in a display of U.S.-Russian cooperation; The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is Oklahoma City bombing, bombed by Domestic terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorists, killing 168., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 O. J. Simpson murder case rect 200 0 400 200 Great Hanshin earthquake, Kobe earthquake rect 400 0 6 ...
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Matthew Spangler
Matthew Spangler is an American playwright, director, and professor of performance studies. Body of work Matthew Spangler's plays have been produced on Broadway, in London's West End at Wyndham's Theatre and the Playhouse Theatre, off Broadway at 59E59 Theatres, and at theatres throughout the world. He has written fourteen plays, but is best known for his adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel ''The Kite Runner''. His other plays include ''Operation Ajax'', about the CIA led coup against then Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953; ''Albatross'', based on the poem "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and recipient of two Elliot Norton Awards from Boston's theatre critics; ''Tortilla Curtain'' based on the book by T.C. Boyle and recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award and finalist for the Best New Play by San Diego's Theatre Critics' Circle; ''The Forgotten Empress'', about the Mughal Empress Noor Jahan, which has been presented in Los Angeles, Pakistan, Sa ...
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Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She began her acting career in 1981 when she made her acting debut in the drama film ''Rich and Famous''. She later joined the cast of the CBS soap opera ''As the World Turns'' in 1982. Subsequently, she began to appear in supporting roles in films during the mid-1980s like box office hit ''Top Gun'', achieving recognition in independent films such as ''Promised Land'' (1987) before her performance in the Rob Reiner-directed romantic comedy '' When Harry Met Sally...'' (1989) brought her widespread attention and her first Golden Globe nomination. Ryan subsequently established herself, both nationally and internationally, as one of the most successful actresses in the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly in romantic comedy films such as ''When Harry Met Sally'' (1989), '' Joe Versus the Volcano'' (1990), ''Sleepless in Seattle'' (1993), ''French Kiss'' (1995), ''You've Got Mail'' (1998), an ...
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Kevin Costner
Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Costner starred in ''Fandango'', ''American Flyers'', '' Silverado'' and many other films. He rose to prominence with his starring roles in ''The Untouchables'' and '' No Way Out'' (1987). He then starred in ''Bull Durham'' (1988), ''Field of Dreams'' (1989), ''Dances with Wolves'' (1990), for which he won two Academy Awards, ''JFK'' (1991), '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' (1991), '' The Bodyguard'' (1992), ''A Perfect World'' (1993), and ''Wyatt Earp'' (1994). In 1995, Costner starred in and co-produced ''Waterworld''. His second directorial feature, ''The Postman'', was released in 1997. He later starred in ''Message in a Bottle'' (1999), '' For Love of the Game'' (1999), '' Thirteen Days'' (2000), ''3000 Miles to G ...
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Bharati Mukherjee
Bharati Mukherjee (July 27, 1940 – January 28, 2017) was an Indian American-Canadian writer and professor emerita in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the author of a number of novels and short story collections, as well as works of nonfiction. Early life and education Of Indian Hindu Bengali Brahmin origin, Mukherjee was born in present-day Kolkata, West Bengal, India during British rule. She later travelled with her parents to Europe after Independence, only returning to Calcutta in the early 1950s. There she attended the Loreto School. She received her B.A. from the University of Calcutta in 1959 as a student of Loreto College, and subsequently earned her M.A. from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1961. She next travelled to the United States to study at the University of Iowa. She received her M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1963 and her PhD in 1969 from the department of Comparative Literature. Career Aft ...
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Viking Press
Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquired by the Penguin Group in 1975. History Guinzburg, a Harvard graduate and former employee of Simon and Schuster and Oppenheimer, a graduate of Williams College and Alfred A. Knopf, founded Viking in 1925 with the goal of publishing nonfiction and "distinguished fiction with some claim to permanent importance rather than ephemeral popular interest." B. W. Huebsch joined the firm shortly afterward. Harold Guinzburg's son Thomas became president in 1961. The firm's name and logo—a Viking ship drawn by Rockwell Kent—were meant to evoke the ideas of adventure, exploration, and enterprise implied by the word "Viking." In August 1961, they acquired H.B. Huesbsch, which maintained a list of backlist titles from authors such as James Joyce an ...
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