This disfigures his face badly; his skin being burnt, 'no ears to speak of except for bits of dangling flesh', his teeth being blown out by the explosion but replaced by dentures, his hair has also been described as falling out. However, after that first reading, I came away disappointed- the book was not what I had expected at all. Francis is skilled at table-tennis after having been taught by Larry LaSalle at the 'Wreck Center', and in his Wreck Center days won a trophy for winning a series of table-tennis matches, culminating in the winning match against Larry LaSalle, despite LaSalle 'letting him win'. Now, so many years later, as I listened to one of his books that I hadn't had the pleasure of reading way back then, it's so amazing to identify a lot of my own style in his writing.

The rape of Nicole also seems to question the morality of of society's acceptance of actions carried out during war-time whilst in uniform against those perpetrated when out of it. Through various flashbacks, Francis relates the story of his simple and innocent childhood, which was centered on his quest to win the affection of Nicole Renard.

Larry asked Francis to leave so that he could have one last dance with Nicole, and though Francis felt that something was amiss, he did as Larry told him. Likewise when Francis throws himself onto a grenade, it appears to show a willingness to sacrifice his own life to save the lives of his comrades but later on he reveals that his real motivation was a way to committing suicide without disgracing his family. Francis does anything to be with her but she's not ready to be with him so she goes back to Albany , New York and study and become a teacher of english. As I mentioned above, when I first read this novella, I was expecting great things, and ultimately didn't think that I received them.

Francis goes to on to beat LaSalle in a table tennis competition and became well known " Table Tennis Champion. Nicole moves to Frenchtown in the seventh grade and eventually becomes Francis’ childhood sweetheart and Larry LaSalle’s star dance pupil.

I felt that Larry had got his deserved fate when he lost his legs because it meant he could no longer be the Larry LaSalle he was (strutting about like Fred Astaire and with an air of self-confidence) and LaSalle is described as a shadow of who he used to be. This pressure utterly destroyed Francis’ mental health, as he grew depressed and suicidal- wanting to jump off the roof of a church, but ultimately stopped because he considered it cowardice.

Francis is a very sympathetic character I would recommend this book to anyone who is bored with books with cliché plots and predictable endings.Hailed as a hero and inching ever closer to his childhood sweetheart, Francis seemed to be living in a perfect world, but the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent entry of the United States into WWII changed everything.