A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings is a short story written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and has recently captured my attention. I recommendreading it myself--you can find the entire work here. However, I'm here to review things such as this, as you do, because things need reviewing time to time.
It’s not that Marquez’s writing is necessarily undesirable, or even inappropriate for this genre. It’s nice, it’s simple, it works. This type of work raises more questions than it answers, which in most cases, what’s supposed to happen. But the questions it brings forth to a certain mind like mine make them too hard to ignore--and thus, somewhat take me out of the fiction. Out of the story; make it less believable. The work falls apart in these little stitches, in a short story the holes can remain relatively small - as there’s not much to work with. In a chapter book or novel, these holes could become bigger to the point of interfering with plot.In a way, the short story format suits this work to a "T."
The questions for instance, begin with the literal timeline of the piece. The days in the beginning when the angel is discovered are paced evenly, the reader can get a good sense of time between the encounters. Later on the time recounting becomes more sporadic, it’s difficult to tell whether days or years have passed in the narrative. Since Pelayo does nothing to ensure the welfare of this creature, how come the angel doesn't die of abuse? If it has to do with his supernatural abilities, how come the police have not checked in with this extraterrestrial visitor? Maybe it all has to do with the spider woman.
The spider-woman in the story is where most of my questions were derived from, and where most of my dispension of belief is lost. First of all, why hasn’t a giant spider with the head of a woman been investigated by the police or army at this point? Does this mean that supernatural transformations are rare but possible occurrences? If so this means that the old man himself should have been just a local wonder, begging the question of his popularity for an extended amount of time. Third, if the spider lady was transformed simply from disobeying her parents, then why aren’t more people half-spider abominations? Why was she singled out among the sinning masses? Does the old man have a lesson to teach us as well?
Taking into consideration that this is a story for children (as the author himself describes it) Many of these loose ends feel intentional, and add to the small amount of wonder that comes along with a story like this. In the end, there’s something beautiful but also deeply frustrating that comes along with this piece, and I just can’t put my finger on what it is.
