In "The Underground Gardens," Baldasare lives underground, as his father once told him the animals do. In Boyle's first collection of short stories, The Descent of Man (1979), each story examines humanity's reversion to an animal-like state. This quirky collection of stories includes a woman who falls in love with an ape, a man who risks physical harm to win an eating contest, and a group of pillaging Norsemen who burn books— which represent a threat to their barbarian lifestyle.

Boyle's novel East Is East (1991) tells the story of Hiro Tanaka, a Japanese man who comes to theUnited States to try to find his American father. Like Baldasare, Hiro has visions of finding a new life inAmerica, where he thinks that a mixed-race man such as himself will be accepted. His dreams, however, are thwarted when he lands inGeorgia and experiences...