The "Burning Plain" and Other Stories

"Juan Rulfo's fifteen tales of rural folk prove him to be one of the master storytellers of modern Mexico.... Rulfo has an eye for the depths of the human soul, an ear for the 'still sad music of humanity, ' and a gift for communicating what takes place internally and externally in man." -- Houston Post "The Burning Plain and Other Stories consists of fifteen pieces ranging from brief anecdotes, casual incidents that remind one of 'happenings' in pop art, to short stories. Many, indeed, are short-short stories in deceptively elemental language and narrative technique; yet all have a sharp impact on the reader.... With a few bare phrases the author conveys a feeling for the bleak, harsh surroundings in which his people live." -- Saturday Review <p> A major figure in the history of post-Revolutionary literature in Mexico, Juan Rulfo received international acclaim for his brilliant short novel Pedro Pa ramo (1955) and his collection of short stories El llano en llamas (1953), translated as a collection here in English for the first time. In the transition of Mexican fiction from direct statements of nationalism and social protest to a concentration on cosmopolitanism, the works of Rulfo hold a unique position. These stories of a rural people caught in the play of natural forces are not simply an interior examination of the phenomena of their world; they are written for the larger purpose of showing the actions of humans in broad terms of reality.