Under the Garden

Graham’s Greene’s “Under the Garden” is a quirky novella with an air of strange mystery, which concerns a dying man, William Wilditch, who returns to his childhood home where he reminisces with his brother about their younger days. Amongst their memories are their conflicting accounts of a childhood incident in which William was lost on an island surrounded by a lake… or was it merely on a patch of land amidst a small, shallow pond in the garden? He was away for days… or was it just for a few hours? It was just a dream… or was it real? William retells the events after reading a story of the incident he wrote long ago for school. He realizes that that account omitted much that he now recalls, and retells his bizarre show more “under-world” adventure in full. With lines blurred between what’s real and what’s imagined, he is left to assess the significance of that childhood moment on the span of his life and, more poignantly, now at his end stage. Thought-provoking, and worthy of a second reading. show less

A strange novella, a mysterious dreamlike story within a story, nonsense in itself, but with a haunting strangeness and a bittersweet quality given that the narrator is terminally ill.

Excellent long short story about a terminally ill older man recalling memories of childhood and his early family life and, in particular, his recollections of an extended dream or magical event at the core of his life. Evocative and absolutely compelling. A memorable book.

I'm not completely sure if the purpose of this story was just so Graham Greene could write all the crazy ramblings of Javitts. A dying man returns to his childhood home and writes out the either strange adventure or strange dream he had of finding an underground cave and the odd people who live there. It was quite unusual with an enigmatic ending but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

A man returns to a house from his childhood, now owned by his brother, and relives a memories and a dream. I don't know much about Graham Greene (other than he's famous) but that didn't stop me enjoying this short story.

This was a surprise. A longish short story (from Greene's 'Collected Stories'), it's much weirder than I expected from Greene.

Haunting. Recommended.

A man is told that he is dying. He goes back to his childhood home and relives a dream?