The Plain in Flames (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture)

I have read this in Spanish as well. Amazing either way. A jewel of literature.It helps if one knows sone mexican history from 1900 to 1940.Thanks!

Needed to pass my class and passed it so time to move on to another class which means I'll be buying again from Amazon to save money.

The paper quality is poor. But the quality/price ratio is Ok

Juan Rulfo's one and only novel. The other one he supposedly burned. His short stories, The Burning Plain, is also very good. For Pedro Paramo, you will need to be very attentive to the plot and the development of the characters and the quick narrative shift. One of the masters of magical realism.

This is one of those "omg" reads. If you've never read this author, brace yourself for a shocking discovery. This is literature that will blow you away. The translators are clearly brilliant. Wow. These are stories, and writing, to savor.

Great story, great price, grrat condition.

book was in good shape

I would like to begin by saying that Juan Rulfo, unlike some other Spanish language writers such as Borges, is very difficult to translate- though his work is universal in scope, his language is filled with "mexicanisms" and other elements of syntax that do not perfectly cross over to English. Luckily I am able to read Spanish, and this collection of stories ("El llano en llamas" in the original Spanish) is quite possibly my favorite of any short story collection.All of this considered, Ilan Stavans has done an excellent job transmitting the stories to English readers. Though George Schade did a competent translation years ago, Juan Rulfo augmented the collection over the years with two additional short stories, which do not appear in George Schade's rendition. Even so, this translation has a few issues which I would love to see corrected in later editions.First and foremost, the story "Paso del Norte" is hard to read in this translation. The original Spanish includes dialect intended to reflect the speech of Mexican countryside workers. George Schade, in his aforementioned translation, was smart to not attempt to transmit this dialect to English (because how could you possibly translate a dialect?) Unfortunately, in Stavan's translation, he has portrayed the characters with stereotypical US "hillbilly" dialect. (For example, when the poor son of the story is talking to his rich father, Stavan's translation has him saying things such as "..you don't even smell 'em because you live good," or, later on, the father saying "Why'dja get married?") I believe that this aspect of the translation should be reconsidered.Another more minor issue involves not translating certain words. I fully understand that certain words simply do not have English equivalents and should remain in Spanish, such as the names of certain plants or landscapes. However, there are a few times throughout these stories where Stavans leaves a common, universal word in Spanish. For example, in the stories "Talpa" and "Macario," he leaves the word "scapulary" in the original Spanish (escapulario).In spite of these minor flaws, Stavans has done a very serviceable translation of these haunting short stories, and I encourage fans of short stories to read it.

HIghly memorable short stories, set in Mexico in the first half of the 20th century, often in lawless times (as in the title story, The Plain in Flames). Terse (not a word wasted), surprising, altogether convincing, the standard of the writing here is exceptionally high. One or two short stories don't benefit from being translated into slightly unconvincing colloquial style, and the two short stories added (according to the translator) only to later editions of the collection seem a little weaker than the others.Overall, though, I would very strongly recommend this to other readers.

fantastic short story writer dry as a bone and says less than a gravestone really brillaint

Very interesting. The prose is hard and spare, like Hemingway on a good day.

well produced copy of these brilliant short stories.

He is unlike any author you have read. Read Pedro Paramo and then read this and be ready to be amazed.