The Edge of the World

Thanks to the marvelous ear, courage and empathy of Anderman ( Poland Under Black Light ), the proud, craven, self-deluding, realistic people of present-day Poland are perfectly overheard in these storiesspeaking to one another, expressing both contempt and love of country, in the course of a jelling political demonstration, while waiting for a bus, during an encounter in the fog in what had been the Warsaw Ghetto. A man queuing for a passport remarks, ``I'm terribly afraid of leaving, because I'm afraid of how things here will look from the other side. I don't mean terror, persecution, poverty, and the rest. What I'm most afraid of is that it may all seem sadly grotesque.'' An onlooker to a fire, perhaps arson, at the National Theater, says, ``The worst thing about it is that truth won't out, as the saying goes. It'll all be hidden from the public eye, as the saying goes.'' The jumble of slogans, naive speech and religious and political language makes a sad, serious, funny portrait, although translator Taylor's British usages may puzzle American readers. (October)