The Golden Cockerel & Other Writings

(Paperback)

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Juan Rulfo is our most important author. Yuri Herrera, author of Signs Preceding the End of the World

Among contemporary writers in Mexico today [1959], Juan Rulfo is expected to rank among the immortals. The New York Times Book Review

The legendary title novella from one of Mexicos most influential writers is published here in English for the first time on the 100th anniversary of his birth. This lost masterwork, collected with his previously untranslated stories, marks a landmark event in world literature.

Juan Rulfo (1917-1986), Mexicos most important and influential author of the twentieth century, received numerous awards in his lifetime, including the esteemed Cervantes Prize, and his work served as the literary precursor of magical realism.

Reviews

To read Rulfo's stories is to inhabit Mexico and, in the process, to have Mexico inhabit you. Oscar Casares, NPR "You can read Rulfo's slight but dense body of work in a couple of days, but that represents only a first step into territories that are yet to be definitively mapped. Their exploration is one of the more remarkable journeys in literature." Chris Power, The Guardian Rulfo, through his photographs and his books, seems to be saying, Look! See! This world is here before us, it lacerates us with the anguished and ill-fated weight of its tangible reality. Come look! BOMB Magazine My profound exploration of Juan Rulfos work was what finally showed me the way to continue with my writing. Gabriel Garca Mrquez The only Mexican novelist who has given us an imageinstead of just a descriptionof our landscape. Octavio Paz A necromancer who is as surefooted among the dead as the living, the peerless Mexican legend Juan Rulfo made into book-flesh the elusive smoke and fire of his country, where the surreal is everyday, and the everyday is surreal: to read him is to imbibe Mexico. The legendary title novella published here in English for the first time on the 100th anniversary of his birth is a lost masterwork The Golden Cockerel offers us the full balance of work by the author ofPedro Pramo: enough said.Barbara Epler, TANK Magazine El gallo de oroand Rulfos short stories are not inhabited by living corpses, instead of living beings that die when they die and are born when theyre born The novelhad not been published when I was in my teens. It can be read as a fable of the power of the powerless, and the rotten one of the powerfuleven when their roots belong to the powerless. It has many other readings. The novel has gone wild in my mind. Carmen Boullosa, author of Texas: The Great Theft There is an exquisite sense of tension in the stories and novels of Juan Rulfo. The earthly and the ghostly are interwoven throughout. Dylan Brennan, author of Blood Oranges Acollection of neglected gems and quirky B-sides. Henry Zhang, Times Literary Supplement A text that is refreshing and diverse Descriptions of the cockfights andLa Caponerasmariachi band evoke aspects of Mexicos particular, vibrant culture, but as Weatherford points out in his introduction, there is a timelessness and geographical homogeneity that infuses all of Rulfos writing, allowing him to capture a universal quality that speaks to readers across generations and across borders. Nozomi Saito, Asymptote Journal Rulfos work is at its core about people who do their best to unburden themselves of the stories they never stop telling. Peter Orner, The Rumpus His is a text in which meaning is subsumed into an architecture of shadows and whispers, and into the ebb and flow of the vernacular. Suhayl Saadi, The Independent Far from the simple imitative realism of earlier Latin American novels, his essentialist work is on the level of myth and archetype. Rockwell Gray, The Chicago Tribune [Rulfos] work is built on an intricate lattice of time and space, but it doesn't seem planned so much as grown, something natural, inevitable, efficient, and effortless.All its paradoxes are innate. Jim Lewis, Slate "Octavio Paz has said that Juan Rulfo 'is the only Mexican novelist who has given us an imageinstead of just a descriptionof our landscape.' By the same token we could say that Josephine Sacabo is the only photographer who has given us an image of that most elusive of landscapes conceived by Juan RulfoCosala." Buenos Aires Herald "...This is a book that is valuable in itself for its expression of the narrative talent of Juan Rulfo...Apart from the first images, which are truly cinematic and serve to introduce the protagonist...the reader soon forgets that he is reading a storyline written for the cinema." Evodia Escalante, Casa Del Tiempo "The work of Juan Rulfo is not only the highest expression which the Mexican novel has attained until now: through Pedro Pramo we can find the thread that leads us to the new Latin American novel." Carlos Fuentes (on Pedro Pramo) His is a text in which meaning is subsumed into an architecture of shadows and whispers, and into the ebb and flow of the vernacular. Suhayl Saadi, The Independent (on Pedro Pramo) [Rulfos] work is built on an intricate lattice of time and space, but it doesn't seem planned so much as grown, something natural, inevitable, efficient, and effortless.All its paradoxes are innate. Jim Lewis, Slate (on Pedro Pramo) A simplicity and profundity worthy of Greek tragedy ... Wuthering Heights located in Mexico and written by Kafka The Guardian (on Pedro Pramo) What is remarkable about these sketches is that the characters are rendered with deep honesty; their faults are highlighted, celebrated in a way that is reminiscent of Chekhov's peasants. Publishers Weekly (on The Plain in Flames) As a masterclass in the short story, The Burning Plain is a joy, but it is also a vivid historical document of a terrible and remote historical era. Andy Thatcher, The Short Review (on The Burning Plain) The feeling that one gets while reading is of a smoky, dark night filled with suspicious shadows hiding still darker secrets that pour out of the words and sentences of the stories. Bhupinder Singh, A Readers Words (on The Burning Plain) "A vivid, brutal depiction of life in Mexico... a literary gem." Unabridged Bookstore Rulfos work is infinitely readable, inventive, and short The Golden Cockerel & Other Writings shows Rulfo at his most intellectual and socially aware. Joshua Foster, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts
To read Rulfo's stories is to inhabit Mexico and, in the process, to have Mexico inhabit you. Oscar Casares, NPR "You can read Rulfo's slight but dense body of work in a couple of days, but that represents only a first step into territories that are yet to be definitively mapped. Their exploration is one of the more remarkable journeys in literature." Chris Power, The Guardian Rulfo, through his photographs and his books, seems to be saying, Look! See! This world is here before us, it lacerates us with the anguished and ill-fated weight of its tangible reality. Come look! BOMB Magazine My profound exploration of Juan Rulfos work was what finally showed me the way to continue with my writing. Gabriel Garca Mrquez The only Mexican novelist who has given us an imageinstead of just a descriptionof our landscape. Octavio Paz Rulfos work is at its core about people who do their best to unburden themselves of the stories they never stop telling. Peter Orner, The Rumpus His is a text in which meaning is subsumed into an architecture of shadows and whispers, and into the ebb and flow of the vernacular. Suhayl Saadi, The Independent Far from the simple imitative realism of earlier Latin American novels, his essentialist work is on the level of myth and archetype. Rockwell Gray, The Chicago Tribune [Rulfos] work is built on an intricate lattice of time and space, but it doesn't seem planned so much as grown, something natural, inevitable, efficient, and effortless.All its paradoxes are innate. Jim Lewis, Slate "Octavio Paz has said that Juan Rulfo 'is the only Mexican novelist who has given us an imageinstead of just a descriptionof our landscape.' By the same token we could say that Josephine Sacabo is the only photographer who has given us an image of that most elusive of landscapes conceived by Juan RulfoCosala." Buenos Aires Herald "...This is a book that is valuable in itself for its expression of the narrative talent of Juan Rulfo...Apart from the first images, which are truly cinematic and serve to introduce the protagonist...the reader soon forgets that he is reading a storyline written for the cinema." Evodia Escalante, Casa Del Tiempo "The work of Juan Rulfo is not only the highest expression which the Mexican novel has attained until now: through Pedro Pramo we can find the thread that leads us to the new Latin American novel." Carlos Fuentes (on Pedro Pramo) His is a text in which meaning is subsumed into an architecture of shadows and whispers, and into the ebb and flow of the vernacular. Suhayl Saadi, The Independent (on Pedro Pramo) [Rulfos] work is built on an intricate lattice of time and space, but it doesn't seem planned so much as grown, something natural, inevitable, efficient, and effortless.All its paradoxes are innate. Jim Lewis, Slate (on Pedro Pramo) A simplicity and profundity worthy of Greek tragedy ... Wuthering Heights located in Mexico and written by Kafka The Guardian (on Pedro Pramo) What is remarkable about these sketches is that the characters are rendered with deep honesty; their faults are highlighted, celebrated in a way that is reminiscent of Chekhov's peasants. Publishers Weekly (on The Plain in Flames) As a masterclass in the short story, The Burning Plain is a joy, but it is also a vivid historical document of a terrible and remote historical era. Andy Thatcher, The Short Review (on The Burning Plain) The feeling that one gets while reading is of a smoky, dark night filled with suspicious shadows hiding still darker secrets that pour out of the words and sentences of the stories. Bhupinder Singh, A Readers Words (on The Burning Plain)

Author Bio

Juan Rulfo (1917-1986) was one of Mexico's premier authors of the twentieth century and an important precursor of "magical realism" in Latin American writing. Rulfo received Mexico s National Prize for Literature (Premio Nacional de Literatura) in 1970, was elected to the Mexican Academy of Language (Academia Mexicana de la Lengua) in 1980, and received the Cervantes Prize (Premio Cervantes), the highest literary award in Spanish, in 1985. Rulfo suffered from lung cancer in his final months and died on January 7, 1986 at his home in Mexico City.
Douglas J. Weatherford graduated from BYU in 1988 (B.A. Spanish), served in the Persian Gulf War as a linguist, & after returning received his PhD in Latin American Literature at Penn State University. He has been a professor at BYU since 1995 & currently serves as Head of the Hispanic & Luso-Brazilian Literatures Section."