Novel · A way to begin
Pedro Páramo
Juan Rulfo · 1955
Synopsis
Juan Preciado promised his dying mother that he would go to Comala to find his father, Pedro Páramo, whom he has never known. He discovers a deserted village, where murmurs and silhouettes speak to him and answer one another. In fragments, without order or transition, the story of Pedro Páramo emerges: master of the Media Luna estate, his hardness towards everyone and his obstinate love for Susana San Juan, a woman who will not let herself be possessed. One no longer quite knows what belongs to dream or to memory.
Context
The book was written with a grant from the Mexican Centre of Writers; it was called “Una estrella junto a la luna”, “Los murmullos”, “Los desiertos de la tierra”, and fragments appeared in journals. Handed to the publisher in September 1954, it came out in March 1955 at the Fondo de Cultura Económica, in the Letras Mexicanas series, in a print run of two thousand copies. Critics were at first cold and sales were slow. García Márquez said that on discovering it in 1961 he had found the way to Cent ans de solitude.
Who it is for
A short novel, of about one hundred and thirty pages, but demanding: the voices intertwine without being announced; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the great novels of the twentieth century and perhaps the most important in Mexico; more than a million copies sold in English in the United States.
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