Augusto Monterroso: “The Dinosaur”

When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there.

Mario Vargas Llosa in Letters to a Young Novelist on “The Dinosaur” by Augusto Monterroso (1921–2003):

“Let’s take as an example [of temporal point of view] not a novel but a story, perhaps the shortest (and one of the best) ever written. ‘The Dinosaur,’ by Guatemalan writer Augusto Monterroso, is only one sentence long:

‘When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there.’

“A perfect story, is it not? Unbeatable power of persuasion, remarkable concision, perfect drama, color, suggestiveness, and clarity.”