Texas Public Radio has a terrific podcast hosted by Yvette Benavides and Peter Orner. They've done at least four episodes devoted to Rulfo's stories. Here's a link to the first:
We read Pedro Paramo in my high school English class. It was life changing to read this novel at the age that I did. I don't think that novel is magical realism though. It's surrealism.
I can’t thank you enough for writing this. Pedro Páramo isn’t a novel one merely reads: it possesses you. It is the river before it rages, the wind before the storm. Rulfo’s prose is a spell: austere and tender, mirroring Mexico’s own landscape: harsh and arid, yet lush and abundant.
For those who can read him in Spanish, his language is pure poetry, half-epic, half-lament. Comala isn’t only a setting; it’s a tragedy made flesh, a ghost that still breathes through every syllable. Short books are only short in length, never in the weight they leave behind.
And if you loved Rulfo, you might seek out another Mexican writer whose voice carries that same haunting resonance: Elena Garro, author of "Los recuerdos del porvenir". She was a friend of Camus, and her prose, too, dances between history, dream, and myth.
Thank you for reminding the world why Rulfo’s silence still echoes louder than most words.
I've read it four times now and I've still found new ways of looking at it. Will depend on the person but I think it's a book that definitely adds value with another read
Pedro Paramo was so unknown in the US that it got a new translation last year. Anyway, good for you discovering great shit previously unknown to you. Alejo Carpentier actually coined the term and is fantastic, if confusing because he wrote about both the Hispanophone and the Francophone southern New World (Explosion in a Cathedral, The Lost Steps, and Kingdom of This World are all in print), and Maria Luisa Bombal's House of Spirits is another precursor you should investigate. Men of Maize by Miguel Angel Asturias, too, perhaps.
The silence in Pedro Paramo is the most glaring for me. It really is a tragedy in much of the Greek sense and it's one of my favorite books of all time.
I'll check out Elena Garro. I'm always looking for more Spanish speaking writers
Diego Gerard Morrison's recent novel, Pages of Mourning, is about a character overwhelmed by the legacy of Rulfo
That sounds great. I'll look it up
check out the review in 3 weeks on Dhimmi Monde 😎😎😎
Texas Public Radio has a terrific podcast hosted by Yvette Benavides and Peter Orner. They've done at least four episodes devoted to Rulfo's stories. Here's a link to the first:
https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2020-11-18/the-lonely-voice-you-dont-hear-dogs-barking-by-juan-rulfo
he looks too much like richard nixon
We read Pedro Paramo in my high school English class. It was life changing to read this novel at the age that I did. I don't think that novel is magical realism though. It's surrealism.
I think, since writing this, it blurs a lot of lines in a way unique to its perspective. Very good book.
Well, damn. Wow. I had never heard of Juan Rulfo, but I'm intrigued and will have to read his work. Thank you.
My extremely rusty high school Spanish is not up to snuff for reading literature--are there particular translations you recommend?
Douglas J. Weatherford is my translation. And the latest. It reads so seamlessly I find
Gracias!
I can’t thank you enough for writing this. Pedro Páramo isn’t a novel one merely reads: it possesses you. It is the river before it rages, the wind before the storm. Rulfo’s prose is a spell: austere and tender, mirroring Mexico’s own landscape: harsh and arid, yet lush and abundant.
For those who can read him in Spanish, his language is pure poetry, half-epic, half-lament. Comala isn’t only a setting; it’s a tragedy made flesh, a ghost that still breathes through every syllable. Short books are only short in length, never in the weight they leave behind.
And if you loved Rulfo, you might seek out another Mexican writer whose voice carries that same haunting resonance: Elena Garro, author of "Los recuerdos del porvenir". She was a friend of Camus, and her prose, too, dances between history, dream, and myth.
Thank you for reminding the world why Rulfo’s silence still echoes louder than most words.
Read it last month. Tough going. Marquez claims to have memorized the whole book, it was that earth shattering. How many reads do you suggest?
I've read it four times now and I've still found new ways of looking at it. Will depend on the person but I think it's a book that definitely adds value with another read
Still not a fan of rulfo (absolutely flummoxed by pp in college) but I now have an appreciation for him 👍
Hey that's fair, it's a different sort of book. The guy by himself is interesting in his own right.
Added to my reading list. Thank you!
Hope you like it!
Pedro Paramo was so unknown in the US that it got a new translation last year. Anyway, good for you discovering great shit previously unknown to you. Alejo Carpentier actually coined the term and is fantastic, if confusing because he wrote about both the Hispanophone and the Francophone southern New World (Explosion in a Cathedral, The Lost Steps, and Kingdom of This World are all in print), and Maria Luisa Bombal's House of Spirits is another precursor you should investigate. Men of Maize by Miguel Angel Asturias, too, perhaps.
I just screenshot this comment for the names.
Thanks for this. I've always been a big fan of writers who've written little, but have had a huge influence.
He's phenomenal. Hope you like him
The silence in Pedro Paramo is the most glaring for me. It really is a tragedy in much of the Greek sense and it's one of my favorite books of all time.
I'll check out Elena Garro. I'm always looking for more Spanish speaking writers