It has become a tiresome subject, and I feel more than a little perverse

bringing it up. Still, there is more to
be said-much more-so let me be-
gin. American fiction, the genre, is

in a muddle. I specify "genre" be- cause the problem does not have to do so much with the individual works, which are various and often excellent, but with the form itself. And to contain the generalizing impulse, if only slightly, I will specify still further: It is the American novel that is in a...