Alan Grossberg

The Endless Refrain Alan Grossberg

Polk is an old semi-literate Greek immigrant and disillusioned Communist who hungers for respect, especially from young Rudy, whom he likes to think of as his son. Rudy, whose father died young, hungers for the life experience of this strangely appealing social misfit. The two spend a day in Coney Island seeking not so much amusement as each other. Polk's resistance to telling the unpalatable truth about himself is matched by the boy's insistence on hearing it, as well as by his youthful dream of a perfect revolutionary society, even if that must trample hapless individuals like Polk. The comedy of Polk's antics in his quest for admiration leads time and again to defeat throughout the day, from which Rudy tries to rescue him. Polk is in the end rescued only by his acceptance of his fate and by the devotion of "his son". But not even the life experience he has wrested from the old man can keep Rudy from his youthful Utopian illusions.