Traces: Stories
As World War II progresses and the Germans close in, the characters in Fink's (The Journey, LJ 7/92) stories teeter on the edge of an abyss. Young love, the approach of spring, the atmosphere of a measured life in rural Poland about to vanish forever?all mark an interval filled with wistful hope, giving these stories and all of Fink's work their aching and at the same time dazzling clarity. In "The End," two lovers pretend the tanks they hear rumbling in the streets don't really exist. In "The Threshold," Elzbieta's parents have disappeared; when SS officers come to kill fellow Jews in her town, Elzbieta maintains the sense of normalcy, and the story ends with her crossing the room to take her place at the table. In another story, three girlfriends wonder whether they will ever experience love. In the title piece, a playlet, a young woman returns to her town a few years after the war to find traces of her sister, who was reported to have hidden there. An extraordinary literary tension between power and restraint is at work here. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.