I’ve read THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU more than once, and I’ve seen a couple of films that were adaptations or variations. So, when my Deal Me In cards turned up hearts and I went to East of the Web and saw a short story called “Doctor Moreau Did It,” I was in.

Doctor Moreau Did It
by Fernando Sorrentino

“Doctor Moreau Did It” isn’t really about Dr. Moreau. I’m not sure why the title, but people are sometimes unsure why I pick the titles I do, so….

Weird.

I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. This story is weird in all the best possible ways.

Beautiful.

The story was written in Spanish and I read the English translation, so I need to compliment the translator as well as the author. The language is beautiful. the style is, if I may put it this way, fluid. I love passages like this one, after someone insists that the sea is the best place ever:

 “Of course, of course,” they said, we said, I said; “the coastal climate, the iodine, the sand . . . .”

I’ll be reading the rest of Sorrentino’s stories on East of the Web. Highly recommended, based on this one.

I am Fernando Sorrentino, and I’m going to write this note in the first person so that I’ll be totally responsible for the truth of my words. I was born in Buenos Aires, on November 8th, 1942.
As worthy men have said, in my fiction there is a curious mixture of fantasy and humour that sometimes comes in a grotesque framework, and always in a verisimilar one. I like reading more than writing, and, in fact, I don’t write too much. After thirty two years, I do not have a long bibliography to show….

A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Read THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU and write a story based on it.

MA