THE EDGE OF THE SWORD

Limited appeal, but well done of its kind, this is a graphic, saddening picture of France war in May and June of 1940, as seen by the least of the direction-less people, peasants, fisherman, shopkeepers at war without guns, a disordered, army, without officers, without maps, in constant retreat. Cross sections of the human characters cross and recross the pages, but do not fit into a plat. The war, such as it was, is the motivating force, and the author lived through a great deal of it as a private driving a military car during the Battle of France.