[In the following excerpt, Lewis comments favorably on Asleep in the Sun.]

Adolfo Bioy Casares first came to the attention of the English-reading public as a collaborator with Jorge Luis Borges in such works as Extraordinary Tales and Chronicles of Bustos Domecq. Since that time—the early 1970s—he has risen to prominence as a literary figure apart from Borges. His importance, however, does not nearly equal that of Borges, although he should not for that reason be passed over without consideration.

Asleep in the Sun, Bioy Casares's fifth novel published in Spanish (1973), begins as a story of bourgeois domestic mediocrity but soon turns into an account of a bizarre form of psychiatric treatment. The wife of the protagonist Bordenave returns from Dr. Reger Samaniego's Phrenopathic Institute so altered in personality—so "normal" and compliant—that of her former characteristics the only ones recognizable to her husband are the physical ones. At first, he is delighted to have her back, but when he realizes that it is not really his wife but another personality inhabiting her body he becomes so disturbed and desperate that he himself seeks treatment from Samaniego. This leads to the discovery that Samaniego has learned how to transplant human souls and that once a person has entered the Institute he will not leave without undergoing a transplantation.

The narrative up to the last four pages turns out to be Bordenave's letter to a friend recounting all this and requesting help in getting him released from the Institute. The friend, however, finds several excuses for not looking into this patently fantastic affair. And there the novel ends.

Although Bioy Casares may not have achieved the world-wide significance of his compatriot Borges, he is one of the best of Argentina's writers. And Asleep in the Sun is one of the best of his novels, and one of the most popular among Argentines.