The Benedict Arnold University in America’s Midwest perfectly fulfils all the criteria of an excellent academic institution: a bookstore well stocked with ring binders, good parking facilities and efficient air conditioning. Since the beginning of the year the English Department has even boasted a genuine Englishman, James Walker, teacher of creative writing. Once hailed as an angry young man, Walker is, in fact, a mildly irritated man in his thirties with three 'promising’ novels to his credit. Socially inadequate, a dedicated liberal short on commitment and drive, Walker is not, perhaps, an ideal candidate for the post he was summoned so auspiciously to fill…