I recently read a piece on Slate about Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo
(
http://www.slate.com/id/2186109/). While reading about it, I couldn't help but notice
certain similarities to Peace. From the article:
Peculiar things start to happen on the page, things I've never seen in a book. The tenses
switch back and forth, past to present and back again, sometime in the space of a single
paragraph, until time itself becomes senseless. The stories begin to refract, shatter, and
rebuild; pronouns multiply--I, he, she, you, stumbling over each other. Dialogue and
thoughts are left unattributed. The perspectives shift from internal to external and back
again, from Preciado to Paramo to Paramo's childhood love, Susana San Juan. "This town is
full of echoes," one character says. "It's like they were trapped behind the walls or
beneath the cobblestones. When you walk, you feel like someone's behind you, stepping in
your footsteps. You hear rustlings. And people laughing. Laughter that sounds used up. And
voices worn away by the years." And why? Because--the reader realizes this about the same
time Preciado does--all these people are dead.
Is anyone familiar with this novel? Any idea if Wolfe may have read it?
Thanks,
Steve