Rating: 
Summary: A Very Bad Book Which Really (...)
Review: I hated this book, it was filled with complete nonsense and jibber-jabber. In my whole life i have never read anything worse than Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo. I strongly recomend that whoever intended to buy this book rethink exactly how important it is to have.
However my english is still the greatest english teacher to ever live and i will not hold it against for choosing such a bad book.
Rating: 
Summary: In one book a career that surpasses Carlos Fuentes
Review: I hope not to offend Carlos Fuentes too much if he by chance reads this, but in my estimation this book is the work of art Carlos Fuentes has been struggling to write for his entire career. Being a Mexican novelist must be very difficult these days, because this is the novel that sets the standard for what a great Mexican novel can be. This is the only book (other than a collection of short stories) that Juan Rulfo ever wrote. But with this book Rulfo has guaranteed his place in the history books as one of the most important writers in 20th century Mexico, or the entire Spanish speaking world for that matter.The book is a series of dozens of brief narratives, with no clues as to who is speaking or what the time frame is. Characters come and go and narrate their versions of events and only after you have captured a mental sense of the entire book and all of its narratives do you begin to notice links between the narratives and clues as to what the story is really about. That is why a lot of reviewers insist on a second reading, just to get a clear sense of what the story being told is really all about. The story itself picks up on a long and widespread tradition of Latin American fiction, the regionalist narrative. From Brazil to Mexico examples abound of writers who have attempted to capture folkways or rural speech styles in their prose. If you know Spanish, nothing compares to reading this book in the original. A friend of mine whose parents came from a small village in northern Michoacan not far from where this novel takes place once got a chuckle when he first read a few pages of my copy of the book and said "You know, that is really the way people talk down there." He later read the book and told me that he couldn't help but imagine this novel occuring in his own parents town, that is how strong the sense of place is that is created here. This book is a snapshot of life in western Mexico (Colima, Michoacan, Jalisco) around the time of the revolution and the time of the Cristeros. But Rulfo doesn't use "post-modern" fiction techniques for the sake of being clever. The disruptions and confusion that surge out of the narrative parallel the disruptions and loss of sense of order that Rulfo narrates: the aftermath of the Revolution and the government crackdown on the Catholic Church (as also told in Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory") led to a war ("The Cristero Revolution") between faithful villagers and the federal government supposedly protecting them from the "opiate of the masses." Rulfo once said he was inspired to write "Pedro Paramo" when he returned as an adult to the small town where he was born, only to discover that in his extended absence the town had become a ghost town. The economic changes that emerged after the Revolution in Mexico destroyed an old way of life, and started a long process of emmigration to the cities or to the United States that to this day continues unabated. But this isn't a historical or sociological document, it is an amazing work of art and whether you read it in English or Spanish, it should be appreciated first as such.
Rating: 
Summary: Hallucinatory imagery
Review: I've yet to read a book quite like this one. This book is written in simple language but creates a complex imagery that is surreal and haunting, revealing a story for the ages. It is one of those books that takes the reader on a journey that is nonexistent, into a world that is part real, part myth. The interweaving of ghost like characters into Pedro Paramo's search for his family history unviels things from the past that are possibly left buried with the dead. A truly bizzare piece of fiction that is like a fine herringbone weave, the threads all intertwined , that upon closer examination reveal an orderly pattern in a new creation, covering the subject beautifully in classic detail. Juan Rulfo was a master of uncanny prose, he creatied poetic imagery that is alive amidst the ghosts of Pedros Paramo's past. This book is difficult to understand without complete attention given , I also think this book deserves more than one read. Having recently read the original Spanish version it will be interesting to compare the translation on my next reading of this book. The conversations in this book stir up genetic memories that are haunting peeks into the past. Considered a classic, this book is a beautiful yet eerie glimpse into one mans search for his identiy.
Rating:
Summary: Magical Realism 101
Review: If in the contemporary literature there are so many writers dealing with the magical realism, we must be grateful to Juan Rulfo and his masterpiece "Pedro Paramo" that brought this kind of narrative to us. The experience of reading this short book can be very difficult to most of us at first, but, once we get used to the magical ideas and the writer's style the narrative flows smoothly.
Juan Preciado returns to a town called Comala, a place his mother left when he was just a baby. That is literally a ghost town -- there are many dead walking people. On arriving there he finds out that his father, a landlord, was a tyrant and people didn't like him. Preciado is taken by some spirits and guide through the story of the city and its death, brought on by Paramo.
Evil and chaos arise from Paramo's hand in the story. That's why Comala has been destroyed. In the early days, the landlord, with the assistance of the church, leads the whole town to corruption, philandering and decay. As a consequence violence suffuses the city. Miguel, Paramo's son, is the personification of that. He is a serial rapist and ends up killed by his horse. When Susana, Pedro's love interest dies, he shuts the entire city down mandating that the farm become dead and funding revolutionaries.
For most, what maked "Pedro Paramo" a difficult book is the style of narrative chosen by Rulfo. His text reads like the hopscotch. Narrative swifts time and place easily -- and to understand the changes and new narratives, the reading of this novel requires double attention. The story can jump which jumps between Juan's dealings with the residential ghosts of the town, his channeling of the non-ghost souls those departed who exist in a mental limbo, and non-linear retelling or straight narration of the past.
In his narrative, the author is dealing with the tragedy -- in an experienced level rather than in a viewed level. The effect intended by the writer is a simple one -- with that he brings his readers closer to his narrative. Contemporary authors try to dead with that, but not many are as successful as Rulfo -- one of the best positive examples is Gabriel Garcia Marquez that with charm and style mastered his own narrative having with basis Rulfo's proposition.
"Pedro Paramo" is a highly recommended book. It is difficult and interesting. But don't let the size fool you. It is short but complex and profound -- and, for many people, disturbing.
Rating:
Summary: masterpiece
Review: if you liked "A Hundred Years Of Solitude" and/or the "Sandman" DC comics, read this book and you will be mesmerized.
Rating:
Summary: A Heaven and Hell Masterpiece!?!?
Review: It is hard to imagine a novel from this century that is better written and more complex. Only one such novel -- from any language -- comes to mind: Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude. Like One Hundred Years, Pedro Paramo offers a vision of fatalism, the idea that everything is preordered and that man has no say in the ultimate final word, and he must accept it and go on. But the fatalistic view put forth by Rulfo is not comical, as that of Garcia Marquez. Each page draws you further into a vacuum of desperation and depression, where the sun does not shine and the people do not live, literally, for they are in the grave. The Indians of Mexico believe that the souls of the dead still live; they wander the earth, which is expressed in the novel very well. Yet it can also be said that the souls of the living are dead. Such is the case of the unifying agent of the novel, Pedro Paramo. Absolutely destroyed by the murder of his father and the departure of his childhood sweetheart, Paramo unleashes the anger of his dead soul on his region, turning the once fertile valley into a barren wasteland (in Spanish 'paramo' means just that). Morality and the spirit of the people are also destroyed. Comala (oven in Spanish) becomes Hell on Earth, and, with the death of Paramo, the town dies also. Paramo's illegitimate son, Juan Preciado, is told by his mother, who is on her deathbed, to go and meet his father, who has died some years before. Basically, his mother is telling him to "Go to Hell", for she herself has been destroyed by Paramo. Juan Preciado (valuable), then, should really be named Juan Des-Preciado, or "worthless". The only thing that Juan finds is Hell, dead souls, and death for himself. The narrator writes that for he who goes to Comala descends, and he who leaves Comala ascends, harking back to the ancient myth of Heaven and Hell. This Heaven and Hell motif is concisely preconfigured in the Paramo's name: Pedro, or Peter, is an allusion to St.Peter, in whom Jesus fou! nded his church and to whom God gave the keys to the gates of Heaven. As already mentioned, Paramo signifies wasteland, or a type of hell. Thus, as is profoundly demonstrated in the novel, Pedro Paramo controls the destinies of the people of Comala, and unfortunately, he carries all the people with him to Hell.
Rating: 
Summary: surrealism...existentialism...
Review: It is not uncommon for people to laud that which they do
not understand -- a possible explanation for why this peculiar work has been praised to the point of being referred to as a masterpiece.
Pedro Paramo largely resembles a surrealistic painting (think Salvador Dali or Max Ernst) in its dreamlike and disjoint quality. The book is divided, not into chapters, but into random scenes that do not correspond to any form of chronological order. The author, Juan Rulfo, described these
scenes as being linked by silences in a state of "no-time" in which life and death merge. The speaker is not always identifiable, and, in some instances, it is difficult to determine whether the character speaking is alive or dead. This almost stream-of-conscious approach is both challenging
and intriguing, underscoring Rulfo's perspective of existence.
The message, however, is of questionable value. Admidst the corruption of the church and the ruling landlord of the town (the patron), the inhabitants are depicted as sin-filled
and helpless. In life, they endure the misery of both material and spiritual poverty. In death, the soul wanders aimlessly,
without hope, while the body continues to exist, to think, in a state of utter stagnation. Essentially, life is no different from death, and each connotes a purgatory lacking
the elevating quality of hope.
Pedro Paramo = an interesting read from the stylistic perspective, but with the additional baggage of an existential,
depressing view of life.
comments and/or criticisms welcome.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, dynamic, and interesting book
Review: More than point A to point B this aesthetically rich and thought provoking novelis wonderfully dark. A fascinating work that forces the reader to actively engage an intriguing and beautiful work.
Rating:
Summary: Densa y emotiva novela
Review: No se crean, lo del realismo mágico no es cierto, detrás del aura de ultratumba Rulfo hace una detallada descripción del abandono, desamparo, la pobreza desesperanzada en que viven o vivieron los habitantes de Comala, cuya suerte es tan atroz que da la impresión que ni la muerte los puede liberar.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books ever writen
Review: Not to much to say about Pedro Paramo.
After finishing this book Rulfo himself stopped writing because he felt that it was to much a creepy experience for him.
That's the intesinty this books has.
Also it's higly recomended that you read it in spanish, or make sure that it's a good translation because the language is fundamental to enjoy it.
top 10 on my list.
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