No. 550: Potpourri
COMPETITION
A reviewer in last week's Times Literary Sup- plement complained that over the past six months one fifth of the novels he had reviewed had been - concerned with some aspect of Nazism. `Commentary' obligingly decided to check his findings and conducted 'a rather casual mini-survey' of TLS fiction reviews over the same period. The survey produced a small league table of current novelistic obsessions. Heading the table came the Mental Disorder category—formidably clinical and admitting `no flabby angst-mongers.' Other currently fashion- able categories were (more or less in order of popularity): Adolescent Stirrings, Other Sexual Perversions (not including straight Homosexu- ality), Homosexuality (not including other Sexual Perversions), Randy-Picaresque, Nazism, The Englishman Abroad and The Jewish Family. Competitors are invited to exploit this useful piece of market research and to submit an extract from the fashionable best-seller to end all fashionable best-sellers, judiciously in- corporating something from each of the cate- gories listed above. Maximum 150 words; en- tries, marked 'Competition No. 550,' by 5 May
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