And not because he is dead, either, although that can’t have helped matters any. It’s for the “explicit rendition of the incestuous encounter” between Hitler’s parents, as follows:
… Mailer, who died of renal failure last month at 84, was one of several candidates for the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award, which aims to highlight crude and tasteless descriptions of sex in modern novels. …
… The excerpt is taken from one of Mailer’s last works, “The Castle in the Forest,” a fictionalized exploration of Hitler’s family, narrated by a demon. In the passage, the demon describes the moment Adolf is conceived, as Klara embraces Alois, a man the novel says was her uncle, “with an avidity that could come only from the Evil One.” …
