On Tuesday, February 17, 2004
he received a letter from "the Swede" of American Pastoral. "Dear Pete," wrote the Swede, "you asked me about change. Transition and change mark the borders of life. We cannot preserve from time any notions of order or control, we cannot protect our normalcy from brutal, violent, incomprehensible change, swift and unexpected change destroying certainty, decimating the luxury of any absolutes. The United States of America is an idea, Pete, that of turning your back on tradition, of breaking the chains of old ideas. We are a nation unlike any other because we crave change, we covet the madness and bright noise of untested futures. This is not a country for the decent or the placid. America makes an illusion of contentment."