India, March 22 -- Dear Reader,

At Chicago's Art Institute, sunlight pours in. It illuminates 9th century stone statues of Durga and Vishnu, Grecian urns, and along the wall, a magnificent mural entitled Paradise Lost by Kashmiri-bred British artist Raqib Shaw.

I tear myself away from these wonders. I have a mission: to find American Gothic. It is a painting I first discovered in the pages of Wellness, Nathan Hill's novel about modern marriage and psychological wellness set here in Chicago. Jack, the art student in the book, becomes obsessed with this painting; it turns into a sort of leitmotif, a frozen question he keeps coming back to.

And then I walk into a room and there it is-a stern farmer holding a pitchfork, a woman standing be...