Story Review by Milos Savic

''One of These Days'' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez has done an amazing thing. He wrote a story which vividly depicts different people’s characters. „One of These Days“ clearly shows that we are not the same in our ways of living, earning and taking on our responsibilities.
It is written in a way which is typical for realistic writing. The story is organized in a very smooth way. Great attention is given to details and the main events are presented so clearly, that you think you are in the cinema while reading about them.
The story is about a dentist called Aurelio Escovar. He is a dentist without a degree. He has a son who is very loyal to him. He calls him „papa“, and not „dad“ like some children, which shows that he loves and respects him. They live in a small house which has one modest room, used for his operations. It has basic equipment and one old dilapidated wooden chair. The story probably takes place in Mexico or some other Latin country, judging by the name of the main character.
The story starts at the moment when the mayor comes to the dentist with a strong toothache. Aurelio is sharply mad at the mayor, because his government killed twenty men. Aurelio does not want to operate on the mayor, but he is threatened with a gun, so he has to do it. He also has to operate on the mayor because that is his medical obligation. He tells the mayor that he has an abscess and that he must operat on him without anesthesia. He deliberately causes pain to the mayor in order to punish him for his crime. That shows his anger and his will for revenge. At the end, the mayor leaves without paying his bill, because he treats his citizens as his own servants.
To summarise, „One of These Days“ must and should be warning for all of us. This story makes us think about our behaviour to other people.