Everything written by Makanin always causes controversy. And the novel “One and One” provoked a discussion in the press. Makanin encroached on one of the main intellectual myths - the myth of the sixties. The heroes of the novel have a biography typical of that generation: university, heated debates about the “main thing,” hikes and songs around the fire, the Sovremennik theater and Yevtushenko’s poems, assignment to the provinces, return to the capital. But the hero and heroine were never able to unite their destinies; they were left “alone.” Aged and faded, they are still devoted to “their time” and its romantic ideals, not noticing that the result of their life is crushing.