A freelance writer and copyeditor, Faulkner is pursuing an M.A. in English at Wayne State University. In the following essay, he explores the peculiar effects of magic realism as a literary style employed in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings."

The style of writing referred to as "magic realism" is marked by its imaginative content, vivid effects, and lingering mystery. In combining fantastic elements with realistic details, a writer like Garcia Marquez can create a fictional "world" where the miraculous and the everyday live side-by-side- where fact and illusion, science and folklore, history and dream, seem equally "real," and are often hard to distinguish. The form clearly allows writers to stretch the limits of possibility and to be richly inventive; however, it involves more than the creation of attractive fantasies. The village in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" may be appealing in some...