Milwood Classics Book Club

There is a strange paradox about Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo in that it is both seen as immensely influential and also belittled in comparison to works of the so-called Latin Literary Boom. Think Gabriel García Márquez. But what this book does is define definition. It is surreal and modernist, but also traditional and deeply cultural. The non-linear narrative doesn’t just defy time, it refutes it. Death is meaningless, as is perception. And yet, there is a story here. A deeply involved story.

What Pedro Páramo isn’t, is magical realism or a ghost story. Nor is it an anthropological precursor literary movement yet to come. It is a story of cruelty and family, covering a span of Mexican history from the 1870s through the 1920s. There is, however, a clear and real story that runs through book; a narrative that is in its own right worthy of the telling. But in the hands of Rulfo, it becomes a meditation of cycles of violence, exploitation of both people and land, and generational trauma and guilt. Pedro Páramo stands out as a unique piece of fiction and needs to be seen outside of its placement of influence over writers who came later.

In reading this book, enjoy the scenery. Let it take you along. Don’t look. Let it show you. Pedro Páramo is as much about the mood as it is about the story. And most of all, enjoy the silence.

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