You can take the man out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the man. Joyce, in spite of his long exile, was all the time a part of Dublin. Gunter Grass likewise, with his native Danzig, now Gdansk and a part of Poland. He recently wrote a book, published simultaneously in English and German. In English it is My Century. This is not to review the book, but, in passing, to note that while every one of the hundred short stories that make up the book has a different narrator, be it war correspondent, or a rubble-woman clearing up the mess that was Berlin in 1945, and none is, in theory, Gunter Grass talking, nevertheless Danzig breaks through. That's what it is named in the English edition anyway, and what it was before reverting to Gdansk when it became part of Poland again after the second World War. It was a political flashpoint for years, especially in the Thirties. It was, and is, a lovely place. No one who has spent even a short holiday there could forget it. First, the architecture. A friend who travels much on business brought back a few recently-published books and pamphlets, some showing the historic city untouched by war, others the city today. Many of the old Hanseatic and mixed-period houses had been levelled by Russian artillery towards the end of the war, but the Poles quickly set to work, without modern construction machinery, to restore what had been a jewel of Europe for centuries. The city itself has great appeal with its beautiful churches, its houses with what Americans call a stoop outside - a space for sitting to watch the world go by. . .in good weather. Beyond the city itself is the seaside resort of Zoppot, a much-frequented beach, almost white fine sand, bathing huts and chairs, a pier to promenade on, and nearby a casino. There are woods beyond and along this shore of the Baltic was and still is found that precious substance - amber. Not so much now, but it is still around in mines, quarries, shops. Woods, beaches, beautiful architecture. Would that it were closer. Anyway Grass was born there in 1927 and that is another mark for this city.