Sin Dolor

The author of the fiction story "Sin Dolor" in the New Yorker magazine of October 15, 2007 was written by none other than T.C. Boyle. Boyle, currently a professor at University of Southern California, was born in the United States and is known for his 60 short stories and eleven novels. In "Sin Dolor" the narrator is the Doctor who claims to have witness every unique and abnormal patients. This makes the Doctor seem bored or uninterested in his work because he says that " He diagnoses his patients as they walk in...". As the Doctor keeps saving for his retirement house by working numerous hours, he meets a young boy named Damaso Funes. Damaso has burns on his hands and immediately the Doctor assumes that he has been abbused by his parents. The Doctor soon learns that Damaso is truly gifted and could be his answer to living a glamorous life that will never get boring. As the Doctor wants to expose Damaso's gift to the world, Damaso's father starts to expose his talents locally for money. Although Damaso can not feel any physical pain, his emotional pain is greater than any pain a regular person can even dare think to bare. T.C Boyle uses his pain as the zinger of the story. In the end, Damaso's emotions overwhelm him and cause him to test his limits. He succeeds, he finds that his limit is death and the only thing that will satisfy his soul is to rid his painful life. I enjoyed this story because of the expected plot and the way Boyle made Damaso deal with his pressure.