PositiveThe Wall Street JournalMr. Macfarlane weaves, Styx-like, in and out of underworld myth and metaphor. The book is a worthy companion to the historian Simon Schama’s monumental Landscape and Memory ... Mr. Macfarlane is above all a poet, evoking place and mood with astounding economy ... his description of encountering the indescribable is gorgeous and evocative ... At times when this multivalent book feels as if it might not cohere, the power of the writing holds it together like a force field ... Mr. Macfarlane in fact seems a bit self-conscious about the narrative’s gender lopsidedness ... More disappointing, perhaps, are the pallid depictions and limited speaking parts that this virtuosic writer allots to women in his stories ... This matters because Underland is not in fact about what lies underground, or about geologic time, but about civilization ... Mr. Macfarlane’s prose is almost always enchanting, but on occasion the spell is broken.
