Comments on: Juan Rulfo: Pedro Páramo

By: Stewart

Stewart — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:08:41 +0000

I’ll need to get myself a copy of The Burning Plain. I do have a copy of All Souls and should dig it out and give it a spin at some point.

Regarding the Cortazar story, I may have to read it soon. I just checked my copy of Blow Up and Other Stories, and it’s in there.

By: john hilden

john hilden — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:57:55 +0000

I’ve only read one by Marias–”All Souls” and found it enjoyable. Coetzee thinks Marias is one of the best writers in the world. Don’t know about that.

As far as Rulfo goes, he is definitely a little bit off-putting when you first encounter him. Don’t think I got fifty pages in the first time I tried “Pedro Paramo” but subsequent readings–many years later–proved worth the effort. I would definitely recommend “The Burning Plain” first. There are some really powerful stories in it.

Anyone ever read Cortazar’s story “The Night Face Up”? It’s one of the best things I’ve ever read.

By: booklit

booklit — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:58:13 +0000

[…] They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?Max Cairnduff on Sam Selvon: The Lonely LondonersKevinfromCanada on Juan Rulfo: Pedro Páramonico on Juan Rulfo: Pedro PáramoKevinfromCanada on Juan Rulfo: Pedro PáramoStewart on Juan Rulfo: […]

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:27:40 +0000

I wouldn’t say fascist, but hierarchical is very much on the right track (and that thought continues throughout Marias’ English work, if you accept my distinction). One of his fascinations is the various kinds of stratification (economic, hereditary, academic, you name it) that exist in English society and that utter lack of logical explanation for them — despite the fact that they often produce tragic consequences (a subject he explores in much more depth in Your Face Tomorrow). His positioning of himself as “an observor from outside” is one of the reasons that I like his English novels.

By: nico

nico — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:32:04 +0000

Yes, I agree, Kevin. I read ‘All Souls’ a while ago. That’s the one in Oxford, right? I don’t know, there’s something slightly fascist in that book, (or at least hierarchycal) that’s the only feeling that still lingers about that narration. But the other one’s really really beautiful.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:38:47 +0000

The sign of a true devoted reader is someone who already has too many books that they haven’t read and yet keeps buying more. I too have piles like that but have the luxury of enforcing a rule that says I only bring books that I am writing about into the room where my computer is located.

Nico raises a good point about Marias — from what I can tell, his work definitely settles into two genres, although all were written originally in Spanish. There are his Spanish books (which I admit to not having read) where Heart So White seems to be acknowledged as the critical favorite. And there are what I will call his English books — a Spanish writer observes England through a fictional lens — which start with All Souls (not at all speculative in my view) and then move on into the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy (definitely speculative, not tedious in my view, but I could understand those who think it is).

By: Stewart

Stewart — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:10:00 +0000

‘Carmen’s Rust’ is a brief novella, very pretty. Ana María del Río is also an important writer…and that piece of work is in my opinion her best.

Nico, glad to hear it. I do have a tendency to impulse buy authors who I’ve never heard of, especially the serendipitous findings.

Regarding Marias, I did buy All Souls a few weeks back. Only found it tonight, tucked away amongst a bunch of other stuff. (I really need to get into a read and purge mentality, as I’ve got far too many books now, so much that all the shelf space has gone, that all my desk space has gone, and I can’t even open the scanner any more because it’s covered in books. Not to mention the ones I’ve had to put under chests of drawers and up in the loft.)

By: nico

nico — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:14:00 +0000

I just saw the post by the U of iowa about Eltit’s first novel. That is a very experimental novel, very fragmented, that makes use of a lot of intertexts, operetta, golden age theater and postmodern fiction; it even has different types of letters and fonts, and it has caused quite a controversy, especially when it was first published (under dictatorship–no one knows how it eluded the censorship), but i wouldn’t recommend that one as a start.

By: nico

nico — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:08:43 +0000

That’s wonderful. I hope you like it. Eltit is much appreciated in the american academy, and also in the English (Jo Labanyi was one of the first to analyze her fiction).
‘Carmen’s Rust’ is a brief novella, very pretty. Ana María del Río is also an important writer, especially because of her ‘transitional’ role (from Pinochet’s dictatorship to democracy), and that piece of work is in my opinion her best.
Now that you are mentioning Marías, if you decide to read some novel of his, please go directly to ‘A heart so white’. His other novels can be tedious and extremely speculative. That one, though, is a real masterpiece!! Thanks for your interest!

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:46:02 +0000

Damn. I thought you had discovered some Marias that I didn’t know about. Perhaps that means I will have to try Cercas.