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Piotr Szewc. Annihilation. Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough, tr. Norman, Il. Dalkey Archive. 1993. 107 pages. $16.95.
The time is the 1930s; the place Zamosc, a sleepy provincial town in southeastern Poland. The cast of characters is small. The principals are: the Blaums, proprietors of a fabric shop; Danilowski, a lawyer; Rosenzweig, a publican; two young policemen; and Kazimiera M., an attractive and indolent woman of pleasure. The action, if we can call it that--for the narrative pace is intentionally static--spans a single day in the lives of the abovementioned people.
The author, known up until this his first novel mostly for his poetry, writes highly figurative, often evocative prose that falls within the confines of magic realism. The narrator observes events from the standpoint of the future (our present). At times he seems to...