Readers who seek a vivid and memorable picture of urban boyhood in the first half of the 20th century need look no further. Boyd to Malachy to Chance describes the world of a young boy during the Great Depression (Boyd) through a scholarship to a Prep school (Malachy) to army service in Europe during World War II (Chance) We see the inhibited advances of the youth to his first love when he leaves for the army, where his horizons broaden as he meets young men from other parts of the country. Then the shipping of his unit to Britain, to the beaches of France and to the frozen woods around Bastogne, where the bloody Battle of the Bulge was fought. Every page is alive with a journalist's objectivity, yet the novel makes a strong appeal to the reader's emotions. The powerful impact is doubly effective because all the portraits are so memorably drawn. In short, the novel is so powerful because it is so real, and especially because all the people on the pages come to life.