The book Memorias del subsuelo is a short novel organized in two parts. The first, divided into eleven short chapters and entitled "El Subsuelo", basically consists of an interior monologue by the protagonist, a miserable, frustrated civil servant, a contradictory, sickly and excitable antihero, who addresses his talk to a non-existent audience. According to the author himself, in a short introduction that begins the work, his purpose was "to present to the public, with greater relief than other times, a character from times past but recent. [...] said individual introduces himself, sets forth his points of view and, apparently, wants to explain the causes that have originated and made his appearance in our midst inevitable."