An uncharacteristically soft, plain, and lovely story by Roth which nevertheless, ends with alienation and fist shaking at God.  In Bucky Cantor, Roth creates one of his most likable and admirable characters, a principled, brave, and noble 24 year old who unable to enter WWII, fights his battles with polio on the schoolyard playgrounds of Newark.  Bucky is joined by his wonderful girlfriend Marcia and her parents, his grandmother, two high school pals, and a bevy of youngsters in the summer program. This world crashes to earth with the 1944 polio epidemic which finally brings Bucky to a tragic, lonely, and unnecessary end.  Roth proves himself again to be a real storyteller, though, a dark and grim one.