Guyette is a longtime journalist. He received a bachelor of arts degree in English writing from theUniversity of Pittsburgh. In this essay, Guyette discusses Boyle's ability to take a story based in fact and transform it into a work of literature.

In his short story "The Underground Gardens"— part of a collection published in 2001 titled After the Plague—author T. Coraghessan Boyle creates what appears to be a fable that is both beautifully written and extremely poignant. A man, inspired by love, begins digging. Using nothing but a pick, shovel, and wheelbarrow, the man—a poor, uneducated laborer—continues his back-breaking toil until he has created a sprawling underground home he hopes will so impress his beloved that she will take his callused hands in marriage. What could be more "fantastic," in the strictest sense of that word? It is like a rapturous dream, the stuff of...