Danny Fisher narrates his own story in the first person, but by the ingenious device of a prologue spoken by Danny from the grave to the son he never knew, Robbins is able not only to maintain the verisimilitude of a firstperson narration but even to describe plausibly incidents Danny had not witnessed in his life, for example the reactions of his mother on the morning she discovers that the milk service has been stopped for non-payment. Such passages are clearly marked with "I WASN'T THERE WHEN," making the shifts of focus easy to follow and helping to maintain overall consistency of mood.

Although Robbins is more a writer of incident than image, he can be wonderfully effective at important turning points in the story by presenting a minor detail of life in a way that suggests the whole direction of the story.

For example, when Danny's mother...