The English language
wikipedia entry about Pedro Páramo is very detailed and looks to be helpful to anyone who wants to read the book. The article's external links led me to a cool soundtrack for the book by Àlex Torío of Barcelona, Spain who composed an album of music called
Ghosts of Comala which you can listen to online.
Àlex Torío bandcamp website wrote:Àlex Torío publica su quinto larga duración, Ghosts of Comala (Columna Música, 2012), un homenaje al clásico de Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo. Sin ánimo de traducir el libro al inglés, idioma musical de Álex,, el objetivo es transmitir las sensaciones que le ha aportado su lectura, universalizándola y haciéndola íntima y personal al mismo tiempo, convirtiendo en versos musicados la prosa de Rulfo
There's also a good introductory article about the book
The Perfect Novel You've Never Heard Of- on Slate.com.
Jim Lewis for Slate.com wrote:...I was steered to Pedro Paramo by writer Ruben Martinez. (Thank you, Ruben.) I read it and then read it again almost immediately, and then again, and then again; I was trying to reverse-engineer it, but I never did figure out quite how it works. At the same time, I couldn't understand how Rulfo had escaped my attention for so long; it was like happening on a new primary color, entirely unlike any I'd seen before. But then I read something else (Gabriel García) Márquez had to say. He, too, didn't know Rulfo's name until he was given the book; he, too, was surprised. How could a book be at once so admired and so obscure? "Juan Rulfo," he said, "to the contrary of what happens with the great classic writers, is a writer whom one reads a lot, but of whom one speaks little."...
Lastly, the wikipedia entry links to this review in the Independent (UK)
Book Of A Lifetime: Pedro Páramo, By Juan RulfoSuhayl Saadi for The Independent wrote:For me, reading Pedro Páramo is like opening a small mosaïque box, only to discover that it is empty, save for the whispers of those who had opened the box in the past. The novel is set in the post-revolutionary dustbowls of early 20th-century Mexico, when rapid industrialisation left hundreds of ghost villages scattered across the rural south. Urged by his dying mother to reclaim his patrimony, Juan Preciado arrives at Comala, and finds that things are not as they seem.
The book is called the precursor for which without its existence "Cien años de soledad" and "Rayuela" would never have been written. It may not be everyone's cup of tea. Page count seems to be fungible, I guess depending on the size of the book in hardcopy. One of the reviews says that the book has only 122 pages in English translation. It should be short enough to be finish-able.
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