The Burning Plain and Other Stories [Paperback]

While not quite as strange and surrealistic as PEDRO PARAMO, the stories contained in THE BURNING PLAIN are very different from anything I've ever read before. All are set on the heat-seared plain of Jalisco, Mexico and Rulfo does a marvelous job of weaving the bleak desolation of the scarred landscape into the very fabric of his stories and his characters. These stories are filled with circling buzzards, stunted vegetation, dry river beds, duststorms and this all does much to enhance them since the lives of the people of Jalisco seem to be inextricably tied to the land on which they live.

The stories contained in THE BURNING PLAIN are soaked in desolation, despair and death and Rulfo's characters are people who've been born into despair and who die in despair. And, in between birth and death, they live their lives in despair and desolation and often, in violence, an emotion Rulfo brings to life without equal. Even in the stories in which violence is not actively present, it sits restlessly on the sidelines, threatening to erupt. In Rulfo's world, death permeates every aspect of life, yet most of his characters desperately want to live even if living constitutes nothing more than mere survival.

These stories are also quite claustrophobic. Even more than other authors, Rulfo seems to be able to really "capture the moment." One also gets the feeling that his characters are "trapped"...by their circumstances, by their own lack of resourcefulness and even by the bleak landscape on which they reside. Hope is a futile emotion in the world inhabited by Rulfo's characters. Few of them dare to hope; those who do seem to do so more out of desperation than anything else.

Stylistically, these stories are extremely sophisticated, probably the most sophisticated I've ever encountered, although at first glance, they may appear deceptively simple. I think this is due, in great part, to their "pinpoint focused" subject matter. The subject matter of the stories contained in this book is as primitive and raw as it gets, but the stories, themselves, are highly polished masterpieces. Rulfo's prose is on a level I've rarely encountered.

None of the stories in this volume stood out as being "better" or "not quite as good" as the others, something that's to the author's enormous credit. The book is simply magnificent from the first page to the last. From a stylistic standpoint, however, the stories vary considerably, which, in my opinion, makes Rulfo's achievement all the greater.

These are stories that go straight to the core of violence, death and desolation. The quality of hopelessness in them cannot be overstated. At the same time, there's an overriding sense of grace and dignity in them as well. A human life may not mean much to Rulfo's characters, but it's obvious that human life was sacred to Rulfo, himself.

THE BURNING PLAIN is simply the most supremely magnificent and extraordinarily original collection of stories I've ever encountered. No matter what you've read, you've never read anything like them. I guarantee it.

Well, Juan Rulfo is a master of the highest sort and this book is NOT magical realism, but pure, hard realism. He only wrote two books, this one and "Pedro Paramo", another masterpiece which I also don't count as magical realism, although some do, as well as a few lesser works. He didn't need to write much. His is a literature worked and reworked restlessly, until reaching perfection. Every single word fits perfectly with the rest. There are no digressions, no philosophy, no theories or grand landscapes. All his tales develop in Southern Jalisco, in a poor, dry, vast, sunburned and sad land. The prose is also dry, precise, economical and to the point. The characters are ignorant, miserable, but conscious and courageous. The titles say much: "It's because we are so poor" is one of them. However, you will not find self-pity or corny sad tales. Only bits of human misery perfectly narrated. By the way, this is the first review I write for Amazon in which I use the word "perfect". Probably it won't happen again, with one or two exceptions.