The Magazine
December 2, 2019
Reporting
Profiles
Beck Is Home
Twenty-six years into his career, the musician visits the Los Angeles of his youth and says goodbye to the past.
Annals of Justice
Prepping for Parole
A group of volunteers is helping incarcerated people negotiate a system that is all but broken.
Brave New World Dept.
Big Tech’s Big Defector
Roger McNamee made a fortune as one of Silicon Valley’s earliest champions. Now he’s one of its most fervent critics.
The Critics
Books
It’s Still Mrs. Thatcher’s Britain
Her gospel of success and self-reliance earned her many admirers and enemies. How should we remember her?
The Art World
The Art of War in “Theater of Operations”
Can an exhibition about the Gulf wars provide new ways of seeing such dismal subject matter?
Musical Events
The Pristine Empire of ECM Records
On its fiftieth anniversary, the revered jazz and classical label launches a major Beethoven cycle with the Danish String Quartet.
Books
Joan Didion’s Early Novels of American Womanhood
In Didion’s fiction, the standard narratives of women’s lives are mangled, altered, and rewritten all the time.
Books
Briefly Noted
“Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming,” “What Is Missing,” “Maoism,” and “A Month in Siena.”
The Theatre
“The Inheritance” Is a Tribute to E. M. Forster and an Audacious Work of Its Own
Matthew Lopez found in “Howards End,” the tale of two sisters in turn-of-the-century London, a template for the story he wanted to tell about gay men in New York now.
The Current Cinema
Pastiche and Politics in “Knives Out”
While gleefully playing with the classic tropes of the murder-mystery form, Rian Johnson’s film also reflects more contemporary social concerns.
The Talk of the Town
Steve Coll on bombshells at the impeachment hearings; Mike Nichols remembered; Charles Ray’s city walks; married to the Mets; the Karl Lagerfeld economy.
Dearly Departed
An Actresses’ Table for Four, Honoring Mike Nichols
To mark the publication of “Life Isn’t Everything,” an oral history about Nichols, Cynthia Nixon, Christine Baranski, Glenn Close, and Whoopi Goldberg re-created their final birthday lunch with the beloved director.
Milestone Dept.
Now and Forever with a Giant Baseball for a Head
Mrs. Met hosts a wedding expo for die-hard fans and their betrotheds.
Paris Postcard
The Lagerfeld Economy
He may have been a monster boss, but the late Chanel designer was a one-man stimulus package for a handful of Paris shops.
Visiting Dignitary
Speed Walking with the Sculptor Charles Ray
On a visit to the Met, the artist visits a favorite Greek marble relief and muses on space, breath, and heart surgery.
Comment
Gordon Sondland’s Impeachment Testimony for the Ages
The case for Trump’s impeachment is strengthening, but the political equation in Washington remains at a stalemate.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
The Perfect Engagement Photo Session
Cartoons
1/12
“There—now I’ve taught you everything I know about splitting rocks.”
Cartoon by Gahan Wilson, April 9, 2007
Fiction
Fiction
The Curfew
Poems
Goings On About Town
Tables for Two
Botanical Tipples and Dreamy Pastas at Il Fiorista
Almost every dish and cocktail at the new NoMad restaurant, boutique, and “education center” features some combination of leaves, herbs, seeds, berries, and blossoms. The concept is hit or miss.
The Theatre
Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Tender, Funny Strokes
His new play, “Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven,” features Liza Colón-Zayas, Elizabeth Canavan, and Elizabeth Rodriguez under the direction of John Ortiz.
The Mail
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to themail@newyorker.com. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.
Mini Crossword
The Mini Crossword: Friday, April 19, 2024
Part of the body that includes the rib cage: five letters.
Q. & A.
How Gaza’s Largest Mental-Health Organization Works Through War
Dr. Yasser Abu-Jamei on providing counselling services to Palestinian children: “When relatives are killed, we try somehow to calm the child and then ask questions: What are you going to do tomorrow? What are you going to do the day after tomorrow?”
Shouts & Murmurs
Recommendations from the Guy Who Works at Your Local Dispensary
Turpentine Gelato, Fiscal Daydream, and . . . what was the question again?
Director’s Commentary
Julio Torres on the Rocky Relationship That Drives “Problemista”
The director dissects a key scene that establishes the dynamic between his character, who is embroiled in the U.S.’s immigration systems, and Tilda Swinton’s “temperamental art-world lady,” down to the meanings of their hair styles.
Letter from Biden’s Washington
Did Mike Johnson Just Get Religion on Ukraine?
The Speaker’s sudden willingness to bring foreign-aid bills to the House floor risks his Speakership—and Trump’s wrath.
The New Yorker News & Politics newsletter
Plus: the pro-labor President; Trump’s America as Russell Banks sees it; and Ronan Farrow talks coverups.
Daily Comment
Biden Is the Most Pro-Labor President Since F.D.R. Will It Matter in November?
The President is winning over union leaders, but not necessarily rank-and-file voters.
The Theatre
Ralph Fiennes Sidles His Way Into Power as Macbeth
A hit British production of Shakespeare’s ever-timely tragedy arrives in D.C.
Daily Cartoon
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, April 18th
“The new TikTok trend is trying to regulate TikTok.”
“The new TikTok trend is trying to regulate TikTok.”
Cartoon by Adam Douglas Thompson