From Publishers Weekly
Boyle's latest concerns two couples in Southern California?one a pair of wealthy suburbanites, the other illegal immigrants from Mexico. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Go tell it in the valley: Boyle's newest novel is, according to the publicist, "a timely, provocative account" of immigration in central California. With a 100,000-copy first printing and a 25-city tour, you know the publisher expects this book to be big.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
From the day of Delaney Mossbacher's accident on the canyon road, his life and that of Candido Rincon continue to collide. Though cultures apart, Candido's homelessness and Delaney's yuppie paranoia make their interactions tragic and inevitable. Boyle presents interesting characters to the listener but seems to want to rush us through the story. The frenetic pace reflects Delaney's world better than Candido's. As their opposing voices are heard, Boyle's writing reflects an understanding of both sides, but his oral characterizations fall short. His narrative voice is eager and doesn't project his own satire as well as it might. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
PEN/Faulkner award winner and author of various novels, including The Road to Wellville (1993), Boyle avoids any potential pitfall of his prior achievement by veering in another direction and seriously examining social and political issues in this timely novel. He establishes an obvious dichotomy by interweaving the scrapping, makeshift, in-the-present lives of illegal aliens Ca{ }ndido and Ame{‚}rica Rinco{¢}n with the politically correct, suburban, plan-for-the-future existence of wealthy Americans Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher. The Rinco{¢}ns' lives, though full of fear and hardship, contain far more passion and endurance than the Mossbachers' mundane and materialistic lifestyles. An initial, pivotal car accident briefly unites, and ultimately separates, Delaney and Ca{ }ndido, provoking question after question concerning immigration, unemployment, discrimination, and social responsibility. Surprisingly, Boyle manages to address these issues in a nonjudgmental fashion, depicting the vast inequity in these parallel existences. This highly engaging story subtly plays on our consciences, forcing us to form, confirm, or dispute social, political, and moral viewpoints. This is a profound and tragic tale, one that exposes not only a failed American Dream, but a failing America. Janet St. John

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Men and women with brown faces and strong backs who risk everything to cross the Mexican border and invade the American Dream are the Okies of the 1990s. Two of them, Candido and America Rincon, have come to Southern California and are living in a makeshift camp deep in a ravine, fighting off starvation. At the top of Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead an ordered sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community: he a sensitive nature writer, she an obsessive realtor. And from the moment a freak accident brings Candido and Delaney into intimate contact, the two couples and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal