Since I am (was) attempting to write 52 bad stories, I also thought it would be good to read 52 good stories. 

This week’s story is A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel García Márquez. Pelayo and Elisenda have a sick child, and after a storm, they find an old man with enormous wings in their yard. Being a small town, everyone has their ideas: a neighbor thinks the man is an angel knocked down by the storm as he came for the child; while the local priest believes if the man were an angel, he would understand God’s language – Latin.

The family realizes they might be able to change their financial destiny and can raise quite a bit of money charging visitors to see the angel until the crowds decide they would rather see the woman turned into a spider.

This was an enchanting story. While we don’t learn much about the family, we know about them through their actions with the man. García Márguez’s descriptions of the man and his wings are very clear, as is his setting (a house so low, the crabs walk inside during storms.)

But the man with the wings is the only person described. We learn about the other characters only through their conversations and actions. 

I really enjoyed this story and am looking to find more of García Márquez’s writing.