Pages 41–42
Juan learns not all ghosts even care about him
Previously, huge developments in last week’s paid-only post. Don’t forget we’ve got a holiday sale going on – you can get an annual subscription for 80% off. That’s $6 a year. That’s even better than the normal, barely secret perma sale (which exists because the normal cost of subscribing is as cheap as s**st*ck will let me make it, which honestly I know is too high for a book recap blog).
Think about it like this: if you buy me one coffee a year, then you get to read everything I write for this lil passion project/experimental return to book blogging/thing I’m doing while working on a different, bigger secret project. Exciting developments in the works, folks.
Previously, we finally got a name for our narrator (Juan), and Juan finally figured out there are fcuking ghosts in this town.
Pages 41–42
This is probably a Juan section, since it’s in first-person and no one else has narrated in first-person yet, but we can’t 100% know for certain because 1) this is Pedro Páramo, and 2) no one else in this scene is acting like Juan’s even there. Who’s the ghost now, Juan?
After suddenly finding himself wandering the streets alone after realizing he’d been walking around with a ghost, Juan sees a man across the street and calls out to him. The town continues to subtly hint to Juan that he’s the only living person here.
–Hey, you! –I called out.
–Hey, you! –my own voice replied.
Juan then hears two women “as if they were just around the corner” talking about, presumably, the man Juan just saw. Or are mistaking Juan for that man. Or are just doing their own ghost business, condemned to an afterlife of looping the suffering they endured in life through the power structures established by Pedro Páramo. Either way, Juan is increasingly becoming not the main character of his story:
–Look who’s coming this way. Isn’t that Filoteo Aréchiga?
–That’s him. Pretend not to notice.
–Better yet, let’s go. If he follows, it must mean he’s interested in one of us. Who do you think he’s after?
–It’s got to be you.
–I’d say it’s you.
Unsurprisingly, this turns out to be a memory of a moment of danger, as the women express relief that he wasn’t following them after all.
–All the gossips say he’s the one who finds girls for don Pedro. We couldn’t been in real trouble.
–Is that so? I don’t want anything to do with that old man.
Seems like Pedro Páramo’s reputation eventually takes a hit. Not that that sort of thing tends to matter for the powerful.
tl;dr wtf happened in Pedro Páramo today
Juan Preciado traveled to Comala in search of his estranged father Pedro Páramo, and now he’s in a deserted town surrounded by ghosts condemned to an afterlife still hounded by Pedro and his devotees. Juan’s having a bad night learning about his dad is all I’m saying.