Thursday, November 6, 2008

My first reaction to "Pedro Paramo"

First off, this book is really different from what we have been reading throughout the year.  Rulfo used several literary techniques to help explain any holes/misunderstandings in the plot.  He switches from the first person to the third, and switches between the past and present times.  This magic realism-styled story is about a man who is trying to find his long lost father.  He travels to the town that his mother left after marrying his father.  The man talks to many of specters of former in habitants of that town, Comala.  When the story switches to the third person it is in the past tense, it talks about the man's father, Pedro Paramo.  Paramo had taken all of the narrator's mother territory.  I am extremely excited to see where this book takes me, so far Rulfo has proved to me that he is a really interesting and talented author.

1 comment:

Dr. Cummings said...

I'm glad that you're enjoying the book. You're spot on about the use of varying narrative voices. It creates gaps in the reader's understanding and forces the reader to take a more active role in the story. Be careful though with the term "magical realism". There is certainly some of that in there, but it isn't necessarily a result of the multiple narrative voices.