Tony: A New England Boyhood is an autobiographical novel about growing up in Gaw (New Bedford), Massachusetts in the 1930s much in the same way that Thomas Bailey Aldrich's celebrated boyhood novel, The Story of a Bad Boy, recounts his adventures growing up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. But there are sharp differences between the two novels. Instead of a Yankee in a small town, we have a Portuguese boy, Tony Alfama, in an industrial city. Felix presents a rounded-out picture of Tony. You see Tony at home with his mother. You see him with the gang on the street. You see him at school. You see...