I just finished "Drop City" by T.C. Boyle and picked up "Blue Skies". I'm only 2 chapters into "Blue Skies" so can't really say much about it, though it feels a lot like "Tortilla Curtain".
"Drop City" did not involve any characters who were writers, was not set in LA and established two sets of characters in highly disparate settings in the Sixties and of their eventual intersection. Well worth it.
As I've gotten older (65M), I find that I have grown less hurried and hasty to judge.
Hurrying and rushing really doesn't help me to do anything faster or better, so why bother?
You do need to be able to quickly judge and assess people and situations in many settings and for a variety of reasons. That being said, I find that judging people prematurely can fail to appreciate their extenuating or particular circumstances. Everyone's got their own lives, problems and situations. For that matter, everyone can just have a crappy day. Doesn't mean you have to take crap from people, just helps to give the benefit of the doubt where and when feasible.
Yeah, I enjoyed them when I was a college student but on later re-reading Corwin just comes across as a two-dimensional good-hearted wise guy who can take care of himself. Kind of a fantasy version of early-generation science fiction a la Asimov or Heinlein.