The Nazi Holocaust in the twentieth century has been so overwhelmingly documented and discussed that it is difficult to grapple with the infernal and lasting effects of so incredible an historical event. For Styron it seems a natural outgrowth of his fascination with the individual self and the systems of domination and destruction that threaten to obliterate him. The ineradicable evil of the Holocaust still haunts western society today, and the shivers of disbelief and horror which still attend it — despite or because of the knowledge and ultimate proof of its happening — continue to occupy the imaginations of writers, survivors, and others.

Styron is also still fascinated with the process of growing up in the more insulated and isolated, at times "innocent" world of the America that he had known. Such isolation can lead to a tragic misunderstanding of the way the western world...