Pedro, Oh Pedro

Pedro Paramo is one of my favorite books of all time. There, I said it. And I'm so pleased to have proof from Jim Lewis at Slate.

Let him convince you to read it the novel because he's quite eloquent about its intensity and depth: "[It] 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. For example: It's the most morbid book I've ever read, since all of the living are dead; but it's also one of the most vivifying, since all of the dead are still living."

I'll have to admit that this book was assigned to me in high school, so I discovered it less at the behest of a friend and more at the requirement of my English syllabus. But let me scream it from the blogosphere that I LOVE THIS BOOK! READ IT! (in case your English teacher never made you). And if you do, I might even let you see my exquisitely dark copy accompanied by a local artist's photographs from a small bookshop in New Orleans.