The Underground Gardens (Critical Overview)

Critical Overview

Boyle is known for his short fiction. As Denis Hennessy notes in his 1999 entry on Boyle for Dictionary of Literary Biography, "Boyle has built his career as a short-story writer on stylistic innovations and inventive subject matter, always displaying his respect for the power of short fiction to entertain." Yet, for all of the critical acclaim he has received for his short stories, not many scholars have commented on "The Underground Gardens" or, for that matter, the collection in which it was included, After the Plague.

Those who have reviewed the book, however, have given it high marks. In his 2001 review of the book for Library Journal, David W. Henderson calls the stories "wickedly ironic, sometimes poignant, sometimes darkly humorous tales that speak directly to the human condition and to a variety of contemporary social issues." Henderson also notes that the book "is classic Boyle, a work to be embraced by his enthusiasts and one that belongs in most collections of serious fiction." At the same time, he says that "The Underground Gardens" is "Somewhat out of context, but no less touching" than the other stories.

Henderson has good reason to single out "The Underground Gardens," since it is the rare Boyle story that features a protagonist like Baldasare, an optimist who continues to try, even when his dreams fail. As Hennessy notes, Boyle's protagonists are usually deplorable:

There are no true heroes in Boyle's short fiction. The reader may ask as well if there are any real, memorable characters in his stories or if the cynicism of his stories has obliterated the humanity of the characters.

Still, while "The Underground Gardens" is different in moral tone than many of Boyle's other stories, its historical setting is one that the author has used again and again. As Jon Regardie notes in his 2000 Los Angeles Magazine review of Boyle's novel, A Friend of the Earth, Boyle practices a "blend of historical fiction and satire that has nabbed him a fistful of honors." Likewise, in his 1998 review of Boyle's novel Riven Rock, for The Washington Times, David Patterson noted that the author "loves the era in which this novel is placed. For a satirist the early twentieth century is ripe territory." Patterson also says that "The prejudices of that earlier age were also firmer and perhaps more obvious than our own," a fact that Boyle plays on to great effect in "The Underground Gardens."