“Is the point of writing fiction in 2009 to represent, as accurately as possible, the way the world really works? And is there a meaningful distinction to be made between works of fiction that are overtly about actual places during actual moments in history (like Joseph O’Neill’s post-9/11 New York novel Netherland), and novels whose emphasis is elsewhere (like Rivka Galchen’s Atmospheric Disturbances, in which setting is incidental)?”