The 3 best books by the unsurpassed Juan Rulfo

Speaking with current terminology, with that country-brand trend, probably no one will have done more for the Mexico brand than Juan Rulfo. Universal writer, one of the most admired on the world literary scene. Behind him we find another illustrious and contemporary Mexican writer: Carlos Fuentes, who, although he offered us great novels, did not reach that excellence typical of genius.

As on other occasions, I like to present a great edition that brings the reader closer to the whole of the author's work. In the case of Juan Rulfo, nothing better than this commemorative box of his centenary:

The XNUMXth century has a few exceptional writers. Among this select group we would always find this photographer capable of portraying reality under a multitude of filters towards a composition as heterogeneous as it is magical.

A cult author, with Pedro Páramo he convinced critics and readers. A character at the height of Macbeth of Shakespeare, with his own tragic breath, with that fatal combination of human ambitions, passions, love and frustration.

But Juan Rulfo has much more. This masterpiece does not end up overshadowing the whole of a literary work that, although not profuse, stands out for its immense significance and intensity.

Top 3 recommended books by Juan Rulfo

Pedro Paramo

Little more would be left to say as a presentation of this novel. The Hispanic-American Macbeth has the advantage of being closer to us, of an idiosyncrasy more typical of the Hispanic world. In this way we can savor that tragic point of the human being in the face of his will to power and the contrast of his mortal essence.

Summary: Since its appearance in 1955, this extraordinary novel by the Mexican Juan Rulfo has been translated into more than thirty languages ​​and has led to multiple and permanent reissues in Spanish-speaking countries. This edition, the only one reviewed and authorized by the Juan Rulfo Foundation, should be considered as its definitive edition.

Pedro is a character who gradually became a violent, greedy cacique, who comes to possess everything using any method, but nevertheless feels an unlimited love for Susana San Juan. Pedro Páramo cannot get the love of his beloved Susana and his despair is his ruin.

Pedro Paramo

The Burning Plain

On some occasion Juan Rulfo confessed that the set of stories collected in this volume were a kind of general shot of Pedro Páramo, a sketch, a series of flanking approaches to his great novel.

And the truth is that in the set there is a similar atmosphere of stories as crude in their development as they are theatrical in their presentation.

Summary: In 1953, two years before Pedro Páramo, a collection of stories was published under the title El llano en Llamas. Readers of the moment, like those of now, felt the questions born within them: Who is Juan Rulfo? Why does he write what he writes, so much desolation, that prose so severe and full of pain, loneliness and violence?

This edition wants to open the doors to the answers and offers the definitive text of "El Llano en llamas" corrected by the Juan Rulfo Foundation. Without a doubt, one of the most important texts in XNUMXth century Spanish literature.

The Burning Plain

The golden rooster

For Juan Rulfo, cinema offered a special magnetism. A well-told story, with the right characters, can serve to spread the significance of the work.

As time passes, the protagonists may not be remembered, but the plot will always remain. What was thought of as a script turned out to be this book.

Summary: Originally created with the expectations of being a film script, this "story" for some, for others a "short novel", surpasses the film that was shot with the same name in 1964.

Originally written in 1950, the first news of the play reached the press in October 1956, in the context of film production, and reappeared in the following years. In January 1959 the text (typed from Rulfo's manuscript) was registered in an office for these procedures.

It is like the rest of Rulfo's works, excellent, perhaps the easiest work to read by this author and also the least known. It recounts the life of a man of the people who, amid misfortune, achieves wealth and well-being and, as in the rest of Rulfo's works, has a logical and realistic but tragic outcome.

The golden rooster
5/5 - (6 votes)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.