The collection of short stories that follows is a tour. On it, the reader will observe familiar emblems of our national identity: from those as iconic as Woodstock and Disneyland, to others more common, such as roadside stands or the suburbs. In our minds, these emblems remain fixed despite their placelessness. This fictional tour misses Splash Mountain. You won’t meet anyone famous, although some characters may pretend that they are. In fact, all the sites in my collection are inflatable castles, puffed up with our collective imagination. If they disappoint, it is only because we have overfilled them. These castles shift when they aren’t staked down. We run to them for shelter, and they blow away with us inside.