Almost Never

"Of my generation I most admire Daniel Sada, whose writing project seems to me the most daring." --Roberto Bola?o

This Rabelaisian tale of lust and longing in the drier precincts of postwar Mexico introduces one of Latin America's most admired writers to the English-speaking world.

Demetrio Sordo is an agronomist who passes his days in a dull but remunerative job at a ranch near Oaxaca. It is 1945, World War II has just ended, but those bloody events have had no impact on a country that is only on the cusp of industrializing. One day, more bored than usual, Demetrio visits a bordello in search of a libidinous solution to his malaise. There he begins an all-consuming and, all things considered, perfectly satisfying relationship with a prostitute named Mireya.

A letter from his mother interrupts Demetrio's debauched idyll: she asks him to return home to northern Mexico to accompany her to a wedding in a small town on the edge of the desert. Much to his mother's delight, he meets the beautiful and virginal Renata and quickly falls in love--a most proper kind of love.

Back in Oaxaca, Demetrio is torn, the poor cad. Naturally he tries to maintain both relationships, continuing to frolic with Mireya and beginning a chaste correspondence with Renata. But Mireya has problems of her own--boredom is not among them--and concocts a story that she hopes will help her escape from the bordello and compel Demetrio to marry her. Almost Never is a brilliant send-up of Latin American machismo that also evokes a Mexico on the verge of dramatic change.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 04/10/2012
ISBN: 9781555976095
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.96lbs
Size: 8.22h x 5.55w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Library Journal 01/01/2012 pg. 97
Publishers Weekly 02/13/2012
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2012
Shelf Awareness 04/17/2012
New York Times Book Review 04/22/2012 pg. 16
New York Times Book Review 04/29/2012 pg. 22
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/02/2012 pg. 24
Library Journal 10/01/2014 pg. 45