Books: Polish Joke

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How to solve the problem of getting an unsolicited manuscript published? "Only by the persistence of the author," says Kosinski. Or the persistence of the hoaxer. Next time Ross submits the Polish-born author's novel he might keep an eye on the bestseller list and give the manuscript a more current title. Say, The Complete Book of Steps.

Editors' Choice

FICTION: A Perfect Vacuum, Stanislaw Lem ∙ Birdy, William Wharton Dubin's Lives, Bernard Malamud Nostalgia for the Present, Andrei Voznesensky ∙ The Coup, John Updike ∙ The Flounder, Gunter Grass ∙ The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever

NONFICTION: A Distant Mirror, Barbara W. Tuchman ∙ A Jew Today, Elie Wiesel ∙ American Caesar, William Manchester ∙ E.M. Forster: A Life, P.N. Furbank ∙ In Search of History, Theodore H. White ∙ The Culture of Narcissism, Christopher Lasch ∙ Thoughts in a Dry Season, Gerald Brenan

Best Sellers

FICTION 1. War and Remembrance, Wouk (I last week)

2. Overload, Hailey (3)

3. Chesapeake, Michener (2)

4. The Stories of John Cheever, Cheever (4)

5. The Sixth Commandment, Sanders

6. Fools Die, Puzo (5) 1. Evergreen, Plain (7)

8. The Coup, Updike (6)

9. Second Generation, Fast (8)

10. Dress Gray, Truscott

NONFICTION 1. Lauren Bacall by Myself, Bacall (l)

2. Mommie Dearest, Crawford (2)

3. A Distant Mirror, Tuchman (3)

4. The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet, Tarnower & Baker (5)

5. American Caesar, Manchester (4)

6. In Search of History, White (6)

7. Linda Goodman's Love Signs, Goodman (10)

8. If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries

—What Am I Doing in the Pits?, Bombeck (9)

9. The Complete Book of Running, Fixx

10. Gnomes, Huygen & Poortvliet (8)