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A review by ambarbaq
Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
5.0
A triumph of Mexican literature, I am astonished and embarrassed it took me this long to read what might be the seminal literary work of my home country. Somehow, we never read it in Spanish (literature) class in Mexico, despite reading works by authors that were inspired by this novel and Rulfo’s writing in general, most notably Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Sidenote, why the hell does GoodReads not have a cover picture for this book???
Anyway, as for my review… I am not sure where to begin. I feel like I am doing a disservice to this story by trying to review it after only having read it once. I could certainly read it a couple more times before putting my thoughts on paper, but just this first reading alone has sent my mind into a whirlwind. I also debated whether to write this review in Spanish, but that would’ve just been to flex on my meager Goodreads follower count (and is it really a flex if it is my native language) … I will say I have no idea, absolutely no idea, how this book works translated into other languages. Rulfo’s mastery over the Spanish language is half the reason why I am so enamored with this book.
Nobody talks like the characters in his books… yet they all sound so authentic. Growing up among lemon grove harvesters in Tamaulipas, the diction and cadence of the book felt so real and foreign at the same time. Sure, some of it can be attributed to Juan Rulfo being from Jalisco, far from my northern Mexico roots, but I believe this was his intention, to push the language to the edges of what could be done. This is borderline a review, and mostly just me gushing, but I was mesmerized from the very beginning, there is a hypnotic quality to the prose and to the structure of the story.
The story is split in two, on one end we follow Juan Preciado, the estranged son of Pedro Paramo, returning to his mother’s hometown of Comala after her death to find Pedro. The other story follows Pedro Paramo and his life in the town of Comala and his search for power over the town through any means necessary. As simple as this story might sound, the book is anything but. The story is told through short vignettes that follow different people and are not in chronological order. Hell, sometimes they’re not entirely “real”. It is a hallucinatory trip through early 20th century Mexico that touches upon the revolutionary spirit of the time. The dreamlike quality of the story is exquisite, and veers into the “magical realism” that defined the century in Latin American literature.
Talking a bit about the story and characters, I think my favorite character was father Renteria. Being a man of faith that holds so much hate and resentment towards Pedro Paramo for all the ills that he brought down on Comala, yet still trying to keep his vows and preach forgiveness and redemption… sublime. His brief turn into a revolutionary towards the tail end of Pedro’s story was a nice touch.
A quick non-sequitur before the end, the edition I borrowed from the library had a foreword written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into who he was not as a writer but as a reader. Anyway, he made a great point that nobody comes up with proper names like Juan Rulfo does and he is 100% right. Every character in this story has a great and authentic name that no one else could’ve come up with. Rulfo apparently got his inspiration by reading names on gravestones.
I don’t know what else to write, there is so much to say, but I am not there yet from an analysis standpoint. I have so many highlighted sections of this book that I want to go back to and talk about. This will be a book that I will come back over and over through the year, as will be this review. If you can read it in Spanish, do it, it is very short, but if your grasp on Spanish is not good enough, I have heard that the most recent translation to English captures the spirit of the book quite well. One of my new favorite books of all time.
Anyway, as for my review… I am not sure where to begin. I feel like I am doing a disservice to this story by trying to review it after only having read it once. I could certainly read it a couple more times before putting my thoughts on paper, but just this first reading alone has sent my mind into a whirlwind. I also debated whether to write this review in Spanish, but that would’ve just been to flex on my meager Goodreads follower count (and is it really a flex if it is my native language) … I will say I have no idea, absolutely no idea, how this book works translated into other languages. Rulfo’s mastery over the Spanish language is half the reason why I am so enamored with this book.
Nobody talks like the characters in his books… yet they all sound so authentic. Growing up among lemon grove harvesters in Tamaulipas, the diction and cadence of the book felt so real and foreign at the same time. Sure, some of it can be attributed to Juan Rulfo being from Jalisco, far from my northern Mexico roots, but I believe this was his intention, to push the language to the edges of what could be done. This is borderline a review, and mostly just me gushing, but I was mesmerized from the very beginning, there is a hypnotic quality to the prose and to the structure of the story.
The story is split in two, on one end we follow Juan Preciado, the estranged son of Pedro Paramo, returning to his mother’s hometown of Comala after her death to find Pedro. The other story follows Pedro Paramo and his life in the town of Comala and his search for power over the town through any means necessary. As simple as this story might sound, the book is anything but. The story is told through short vignettes that follow different people and are not in chronological order. Hell, sometimes they’re not entirely “real”. It is a hallucinatory trip through early 20th century Mexico that touches upon the revolutionary spirit of the time. The dreamlike quality of the story is exquisite, and veers into the “magical realism” that defined the century in Latin American literature.
Talking a bit about the story and characters, I think my favorite character was father Renteria. Being a man of faith that holds so much hate and resentment towards Pedro Paramo for all the ills that he brought down on Comala, yet still trying to keep his vows and preach forgiveness and redemption… sublime. His brief turn into a revolutionary towards the tail end of Pedro’s story was a nice touch.
A quick non-sequitur before the end, the edition I borrowed from the library had a foreword written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into who he was not as a writer but as a reader. Anyway, he made a great point that nobody comes up with proper names like Juan Rulfo does and he is 100% right. Every character in this story has a great and authentic name that no one else could’ve come up with. Rulfo apparently got his inspiration by reading names on gravestones.
I don’t know what else to write, there is so much to say, but I am not there yet from an analysis standpoint. I have so many highlighted sections of this book that I want to go back to and talk about. This will be a book that I will come back over and over through the year, as will be this review. If you can read it in Spanish, do it, it is very short, but if your grasp on Spanish is not good enough, I have heard that the most recent translation to English captures the spirit of the book quite well. One of my new favorite books of all time.