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Jim Fonseca's Reviews > Pedro Páramo
Pedro Páramo
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“She [your mother] told me you were coming. She said you’d arrive today.”
“My mother…my mother is dead.”
“Oh, then that’s why her voice sounded so weak.”
This book, really a novella (120 pages), is a Mexican classic, an early example of magical realism. It’s original, startling, unique. According to Wikipedia Gabriel García Márquez has said that he felt blocked as a novelist after writing his first four books and that it was only his life-changing discovery of Pedro Páramo in 1961 that opened his way to the composition of his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Jorge Luis Borges considered Pedro Páramo to be one of the greatest texts written in any language.
A man’s mother dies and he promised her on her death bed that he would go back to her village to meet his father, Don Pedro, whom he has never met. Near the village he meets a man who tells him Pedro was his father too and that “He’s hate. He’s just pure hate.”
The god-forsaken village is dead or dying and it’s filled with ghosts. Maybe a few are real people, but most are ghosts.
“The village is full of echoes. Perhaps they got trapped in the hollow of the walls, or under the stones. When you walk in the street you can hear other footsteps, and rustling noises, and laughter. Old laughter, as if it were tired of laughing by now. And voices worn out with use. You can hear all this. I think someday these sounds will die away.”
It’s hard to keep track of who is who and who is alive. Maybe they are all dead. Perhaps this is purgatory because there is a lot of talk of the priest, confessions, and waiting for sins to be forgiven. “Can’t you see my sins? Can’t you see those purple stains, like impetigo? And that’s only on the outside. Inside I’m a sea of mud.”
The noises that the ghosts hear are constant and Stephen-Kingish: screams, animals, men banging on doors with guns.
A very short book, well-worth a read and quite a trip.
Catorce, a Mexican ghost town from dailymail.co.uk
Photo of the author (1917-1986) from notimerica.com
“My mother…my mother is dead.”
“Oh, then that’s why her voice sounded so weak.”
This book, really a novella (120 pages), is a Mexican classic, an early example of magical realism. It’s original, startling, unique. According to Wikipedia Gabriel García Márquez has said that he felt blocked as a novelist after writing his first four books and that it was only his life-changing discovery of Pedro Páramo in 1961 that opened his way to the composition of his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Jorge Luis Borges considered Pedro Páramo to be one of the greatest texts written in any language.
A man’s mother dies and he promised her on her death bed that he would go back to her village to meet his father, Don Pedro, whom he has never met. Near the village he meets a man who tells him Pedro was his father too and that “He’s hate. He’s just pure hate.”
The god-forsaken village is dead or dying and it’s filled with ghosts. Maybe a few are real people, but most are ghosts.
“The village is full of echoes. Perhaps they got trapped in the hollow of the walls, or under the stones. When you walk in the street you can hear other footsteps, and rustling noises, and laughter. Old laughter, as if it were tired of laughing by now. And voices worn out with use. You can hear all this. I think someday these sounds will die away.”
It’s hard to keep track of who is who and who is alive. Maybe they are all dead. Perhaps this is purgatory because there is a lot of talk of the priest, confessions, and waiting for sins to be forgiven. “Can’t you see my sins? Can’t you see those purple stains, like impetigo? And that’s only on the outside. Inside I’m a sea of mud.”
The noises that the ghosts hear are constant and Stephen-Kingish: screams, animals, men banging on doors with guns.
A very short book, well-worth a read and quite a trip.
Catorce, a Mexican ghost town from dailymail.co.uk
Photo of the author (1917-1986) from notimerica.com
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
May 7, 2019
– Shelved
May 7, 2019
– Shelved as:
mexican-authors
May 7, 2019
– Shelved as:
favorite-books
May 7, 2019
– Shelved as:
religious-theme
May 7, 2019
–
Finished Reading
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May 07, 2019 06:43AM
The shifting viewpoints are hard to keep up with, aren't they? In the end I decided that none of them were alive, what did you think?
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Great review Jim but you have left me hanging. Now I have to read the book. Thanks.
·Karen· wrote: "The shifting viewpoints are hard to keep up with, aren't they? In the end I decided that none of them were alive, what did you think?"Hi Karen, yes it gets confusing. I thought all were ghosts except perhaps a few of the old women, like the one who told him his mother told her he was coming.
RK-ïsme wrote: "Great review Jim but you have left me hanging. Now I have to read the book. Thanks."Thanks RK, I thought it was pretty good. A very short book.
Great review of a great book. I thought they were all ghosts too but that ambiguity makes it all work.I actually visited Comala where it is set. A very sleepy town so maybe the ghosts abound there even now.
David wrote: "Great review of a great book. I thought they were all ghosts too but that ambiguity makes it all work.I actually visited Comala where it is set. A very sleepy town so maybe the ghosts abound ther..."
Yes they could all be ghosts! I knew about Comala (I've not been there) and I was going to use its photo but it looked too prosperous!
Stunning review -- and now I've got to read this for myself. Thank you : )
What an interesting book...and a fine, ( too mild a word ) review Jim. Another novel which should be better known and read, including me, having loved GGM's work.
Deb wrote: "Stunning review -- and now I've got to read this for myself. Thank you : )"Thanks Deb - if you read it, I hope you like it
Henry wrote: "What an interesting book...and a fine, ( too mild a word ) review Jim. Another novel which should be better known and read, including me, having loved GGM's work."yes, both masters of magical realism
