Kogawa's Itsuka (1992) continues the story of Naomi's family as they try to win redress from the Canadian government for the unjust internment.

Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977) is the story of a Native American man trying to recover from his experience fighting in World War II for the U.S. Army in the Pacific against the Japanese. His nightmares involve the frightening idea that as a sometime enemy of Americans he was killing an enemy that looked like him. Eventually he is able to regain his mental health by returning to his tribe's traditions.

Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy (1990) is a tale of another girl coming of age while dealing with sexual nightmares. Lucy's sexual secrets, like Naomi's, make the already difficult task of coming to womanhood as a racial minority all the more difficult.

An American who wrote of a character trying...