The compact narrative proceeds in a series of connected sketches that feel at once breathless and unhurried; Sada is a master of controlled casualness mixed with weighty philosophical questions.
One Out of Two comes in at under 100 pages and, as such, feels more like a breezy, witty novella than a gutsy, ideas-rich novel. But thanks to Sada’s controlled artistry and Katherine Silver’s sparkling translation, it manages to enchant and amuse.
This brief book lacks the emotional heft of some of Sada’s longer novels, but for readers new to his work, One Out of Two offers a bewitching introduction to one of Mexico’s most inventive prose stylists of the last 50 years.
