Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo (1955) | Book & Film Review

Thank you Jorge, Pedro Paramo is one of my favorites. I will admit the first read was challenging because I hadn’t read anything like it but, in the reread everything came together and I was blown away, I read it every couple of years and it still holds up. I was born in a small town in Mexico and lived there for 4 years before we immigrated to the US so, it brings me much nostalgia, my mother and grandmother had a corn mill, ghost stories seemed so real, not unlike the ones in the book

SOLD, I will read Pedro Paramo this year. You had me in the name simbolism. And going over the video you just kept upping the bar. Will surely do it in Spanish and now I have a couple more books to look up to in the future. Thank you

Pedro Paramo is my earliest Latin American favourite and I got this latest Weathrford edition newly. I tried watching the Carlos Velo movie version but the English sub doesn’t sync half way through the movie… Thank you for the insightful analysis… Yes, the Marquez intro adds to the appeal of the new version…

Amazing book, amazing video.

Edit: I also bought this translation when I saw it at an airport recently, and am now looking forward to trying that out that this coming fall.

Super cool, I read a different English translation but I’m looking forward to rereading with this latest one. Enjoyed hearing your thoughts on the translation

Great, great, great in-depth analysis, especially when you say that this is an atmospheric novella. It is. The language is fluid, dark, and bulky. It looks like molten bitumen telling you the stories of Camala as it flows. And I don't quite know how to call what makes it special. I only know that I'd have to re-read it.

Much obliged. I have the Peden translation in English and don't know Spanish. Next I will try Weatherford translation. An opportunity to read this novella again.

Atmospheric ?
And ironic ?
I’m sold.

My version reads : « Puis je commençai à avoir la tête pleine de rêves et à laisser courir les illusions(…) »
So, we have the dreams, alright, but the last part is a bit awkward (illusions don’t « run » in French usually, lol).

Thanks for the tip about quotation marks, a subtlety like this is often overlooked on 1st read.

The blurb on the back cover is written by Carlos Fuentes. He links the book to the surrealist movement (among other things, the usual suspects : Bible, Greek tragedy…). Definitely intriguing.

Hola jorge! I agree 100% with ramonfranco's point of view. I have read pedro paramo 3 times, the first in italian e the other two in spanish. The first time, even if I read it in my mother tongue, I understood nothing. The second time something different and mesmerizing emerged here and there in the text. The third one I was literally blown away. Now your astonishing video gives me the chance to reread pedro paramo for the 4th time in spanish. Have you ever heard of conversations in Sicily by elio vittorini? In this book there is the same eerie and weird atmosphere that you have in pedro paramo. It arouses a similar state of mind in you. Thank you once again, my friend. Have a gorgeous day!

"Conversazione in Sicilia is such an enigmatic work, at times I loved it and lived the pleasure of this natural conversation between elderly mother and grown-up child, between Sicily and Sicilian, yet other times I got lost in the complicated connections, the shorthand, repetition and long-windedness of the dialogue confused me. These conversations, like many real ones, are fleeting, flippant, mundane and they slip beyond our grip and understanding.
Silvestro is a lost and disillusioned Sicilian living in Milan who gets a letter from his father saying he has left his mother and so he clumsily journeys back down to the island guided by a mixture of nostalgia and indignation for life.
The journey of a long lost Sicilian son who has moved away from his beloved island for many years retraces his steps back down to his Mediterranean home recalling the harsh desert landscape of the summers in his childhood near Syracuse. Silvestro finds his mother deep in winter hibernation entrenched in timeless Sicula habits, eating food gathered from the countryside, telling mundane personal and family stories, using the ancient dialect, she is a stoic ageing Sicilian woman filled with pride, yet with the defeats of life accumulating before her.
Listening in to the discussion is like hearing real Sicilians talking, few words are used, they are repeated often, at times there is latent anger or the energy of a forceful interrogation, yet the intonation and energy of the human spirit behind them gives them compelling meaning.
We are talking about Fascist Italy and Sicily, a period of great upheaval, Vittorini reflects the disillusionment of his generation, the intellectual wasteland created by the Fascist regime. Silvestro is a victim of ‘estranged furies,’ a sense of loss and slavery, life has lost its meaning, hence the return to his past in the hope of finding some peace of mind".

I've read Pedro Paramo in my mother tongue: Indonesia. No doubt, it's magnificent. And now I wonder, how it can be way more beautiful in its original form 😅

Hello my friend, I’ve just read “Pedro Paramo”.
I was expecting a masterpiece of fantastic literature, atmospheric and haunting the reader with its elusive meaning.
I did not expect such poetic, powerful prose. Each sentence comes as a surprise, it’s so unique.
It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.

It’s like a “vanité” - I mean the 17th paintings with skull and withering flowers, you know, memento mori. Except the aesthetic is not as lush. It’s as polished but minimalist, mineral.
(There’s actually someone handling a skull in the book).

“Pedro Paramo” was sitting on my shelf until your video gave me the impulse to read it.
Thank you so much 🙏

Thank goodness for NETFLIX literary adaptations. Looking forward to Pedro Paramo and also 100 Years of Solitude.

Great discussion.
I read the book in an earlier translation, am rereading the new translation now by Douglas J. Weatherword because I want to watch the new adaptation on Netflix. The foreword by GGM is so interesting. I also find it interesting that Mutis is mentioned as the person who introduced GGM to Rulfo, his own Adventures of Maqroll (at least the translation available by NYRB) is much more Don-Quixote like I thought.

I recently reread One Hundred Years Of Solitude in a Bengali translation for the first time (tr: Tarun Kumar Ghatak, title: Nihshangatar Shotoborsho), again to hopefully watch the Netflix adaptation.

It's very interesting that both these works are being adapted because I thought they were "unadaptable". Hence your discussion of the earlier film and comparison to the book was also very illuminating.

I also really appreciate your explanation of the novella form in terms of structure as opposed to just the length ie short novel misconception. Thank you. 🙏🏽

Also a recommendation: The Legends of Khasak by O V Vijayan, translated from the Malayalam by the author himself, published by Penguin India Classics. It came out in 1969 but I just read it, quintessentially Indian and maybe a precursor to magical realist elements with the blend of myth, spooky elements and everyday life. Why I'm mentioning: it's compared to One Hundred Years due to the publication date but the book it most reminded me of was actually Pedro Paramo! If you liked Pedro Paramo, I think there is a good chance you will like this novella (it has that repeating structure imo).

Thank you once again for a very nice video.