In Nagasaki, American planes did drop warning leaflets - but not till Aug. 10, a day after the city was bombed.

In Hiroshima, bombed Aug. 6, 1945, no warning was given of the air attack, and thus no escape was possible for the mostly women, children and old people who fell victim.

It seems to me that the time for subtlety in our American life has passed.

When it comes to American Indians, mainstream America suffers from willful blindness.

Domestic realism has dominated the American marketplace for decades now. It leeches into literary fiction, and I don't think it's that rich a vein.

The comic novels I did when I was in my 20s had a harder edge - less sympathy for people. Or a sympathy that was harder to detect: Characters' foibles and obsessive bents were unrelenting, like caricatures.