A Drama of Our Time By Fernando Sorrentino

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Relaxing at home, Fernando spots an attractive young woman on the balcony opposite. A Drama of Our Time

Enjoyed for what it's worth. It made me chuckle with the pointless, absurd drama which is, precisely, timeless. A Drama of Our Time These guys deserve each other, as far as I'm concerned. A Drama of Our Time


Fernando Sorrentino’s absurdist tale, A Drama of Our Time, is a subtle, artful and shrewdly prescient meditation on our very human desire to connect with those around us. I had much fun reading this piece several times over. Below is my write-up along with a link to the actual story. Spoiler Alert: My analysis covers the entire story, beginning to end.

Sighting: Our first-person narrator Fernando starts off by letting us know the following events happened when he was a upbeat optimistic twenty-seven year old high school literature teacher sitting out on his apartment balcony during the late morning of his free Thursday drinking mate and rereading a nineteenth century British adventure novel. All of a sudden, Fernando feels someone watching him. He looks up: on one of the apartment balconies opposite, he spots a young woman. He waves to her and she waves back to him but then she promptly leaves her balcony. Fernando tries to catch a glimpse of the young woman inside her apartment but has no luck. We have to admit there is no better way to begin a story then the chance meeting of a charming young man and attractive young woman with the prospect of future romance, the perennial centerpiece of much of both modern life and modern fiction.

The Plot Thickens: The young woman returns to her balcony with magazine and dark glasses and takes a seat in a deckchair. Fernando begins frantically to signal and gesture. He knows she sees him and is only pretending to read her magazine. “It’s a ruse,” I thought: “it’s not possible that she doesn’t see me, and now she’s posing so I can enjoy the show.” Ah, here we have the makings of an alluring relationship – Fernando senses an element of staging and theater for his exclusive benefit. And now Fernando can see his tall, slender young lady with dark, shoulder-length hair is not only somewhat attractive, she’s beautiful! Whoa baby - he’s hooked.

The Next Step: Fernando leaves his balcony, enters his bedroom and peers through the shutters – the young beauty is looking in his direction. “So I ran out and caught her in flagrante delicto.” My goodness, what language, Fernando! Is this a Freudian slip accidentally on purpose? Sounds like we have an inflamed Romeo with sex on his mind. So Fernando waves frantically and his beautiful young Juliet waves in return. Since shouting back and forth would be impossible, Fernando makes the universal hand gestures indicating he will call her on the telephone. Juliet, in turn, sinks her head into her shoulders and opens her hands signaling she doesn’t get it. “Bitch! How could she not understand?” Oh my, now we have the full range of Romeo’s emotions in play which really, really heightens the drama.

Solution Foiled: Fernando ducks into his living room, unplugs his phone and returns to the balcony, displaying the gadget as if it were a trophy. Juliet beams a smile and nods her head knowingly. But what is her phone number? Fernando signals for Juliet to give him her number, but being a beautiful woman she stretches the game out with her Romeo until finally she gives in and traces the seven numbers in the air. Bingo! Fernando races to the living room, plugs in the phone, dials the number and is surprised when a deep male voice answers. Both confused and intimidated, Fernando mumbles how he would like to speak with the girl on the balcony. “What girl, señor? What girl are you talking about, señor?” There’s some back and forth until the male’s booming voice now contains a shade of menace. Fernando opens his mouth to say something but hears a loud click.

From Romeo to Feste: The story continues with Fernando making more phone calls, including a phone call to his friend who works at a financial institution who can match the number he has with a name. Once he has the beautiful young woman’s actual name he calls the number back. When the male voice again answers the phone and flies into a rage, insisting Fernando has the wrong number, something fascinating happens: Fernando as Romeo realizes he will never speak with his Juliet so he makes a dramatic switch and disguises his voice to take on the role of a Shakespearean joker. At this bit of clowning, the male voice becomes even more enraged. But the more enraged, the more Fernando the joker sticks his comic needle into his victim. The conversation continues and Fernando is so elated with his performance as joker, imagining how the big husky male on the other end of the line has boiled over and is now ten shades of beet red, he couldn’t care less about not speaking with that girl on the balcony. After all, Fernando knows he has made a human connection, a connection that could very well be considered a drama of our time.

Link to A Drama of Our Time by Fernando Sorrentino: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-sto... A Drama of Our Time Extremely pointless and humorous! A Drama of Our Time