Pedro Paramo

"Pedro Paramo," Juan Ruflo's powerful and haunting novel, is a quick, but unforgetable read. A man's quest to find the father he never knew in a small town in Mexico soon immerses one in a surreal world that will not soon be forgotten.
"The New York Times Book Review" says of the author, "Among contemporary writers in Mexico today, Juan Rulfo is expected to rank among the immortals." According to the "Cambridge Companion to Modern Latin American Culture", Gabriel Garcia Marquez's tribute to Pedro Paramo was that he learnt the novel by heart.
The cost of the Wittliff Gallery edition is well worth the investment. The edition is loaded with the photographs of Josephine Sacabo. The photos that were inspired by the text enhance the experience. Read it in one sitting.

Book Reviews & More

"Bookmarks" magazine is a great way to see what others are saying about the current crop from the publishing industry. Kurt Vonnegut is quoted on their webpage, "Nowhere else have I found such thoughful and literate reportage on the state of the American soul, as that soul makes itself known in the books we write." Well- it's only a magazine that consolidates a lot of reviews, but the other features are what make the magazine stand out. Each issue features a classic author with a book-by-book profile. Other useful features each month are the top books in a specific genre, and in the non-fiction realm, recommendations on a specific topic. Currently a bi-montthly publication, I'm hoping it soon appears in my mailbox monthly.

All in the Family

Two of the novels near the top of many booklists so far this year are creations of the husband and wife team of Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krause. Each of them also topped the lists a couple of years ago with their debut novels. These novels are very similar to each other in tone and form (and many critics are questioning the similarities), but both Nicole's "History of Love" and Jonathan's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" are compelling novels. The characters quickly garner one's interest, and the stories never falter. I will be going back to read both of the earlier novels.