The Magazine
September 20, 2021
Reporting
Annals of Equality
The Man Behind Critical Race Theory
As an attorney, Derrick Bell worked on many civil-rights cases, but his doubts about their impact launched a groundbreaking school of thought.
A Reporter at Large
How a Syrian War Criminal and Double Agent Disappeared in Europe
In the bloody civil war, Khaled al-Halabi switched sides. But what country does he really serve?
Profiles
How Colm Tóibín Burrowed Inside Thomas Mann’s Head
In writing his new novel, the Irish author spent years tracing the secret yearnings of Mann—who, he says, played a lifelong “game between what was revealed and what was concealed.”
Onward and Upward with the Arts
After a Year Without Crowds, Caroline Polachek Takes the Stage
The singer-songwriter tries to hold down an uncertain moment.
The Critics
Books
How the Real Jane Roe Shaped the Abortion Wars
The all-too-human plaintiff of Roe v. Wade captured the messy contradictions hidden by a polarizing debate.
The Theatre
Shades of Beckett in “Pass Over”
The first play to open on Broadway since the shutdown, about two down-and-out young Black men on a barren block, is a strange fit for the moment at hand.
A Critic at Large
Reading Dante’s Purgatory While the World Hangs in the Balance
Seven centuries after the poet’s death, we may finally be ready for his epic of punishment and penance.
Pop Music
Saint Etienne’s Nineties Nostalgia
The band’s new album, “I’ve Been Trying to Tell You,” conjures the complexity of an era often romanticized as one of hope and optimism.
The Current Cinema
Guilt and Numbness in “The Card Counter”
Paul Schrader’s obsession with sin and redemption is palpable in a film starring Oscar Isaac as a veteran haunted by his experiences in the Iraq War, but against the strong moral backdrop the characters seem adrift.
The Talk of the Town
Amy Davidson Sorkin on the fate of Guantánamo; he knows how the fire started; a chaplaincy kerfuffle; reparative reading; the bird book of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Oregon Postcard
A Wildfire Investigator Searches for a Spark
Al Crouch, who has traced blazes back to cigarettes, fireworks, and a love letter ripped into pieces and burned, looks for clues in his latest case in eastern Oregon.
Reading Dept.
From “2 Dope Queens” to the Best-Seller List
The actress, comedian, and author Phoebe Robinson can add “publishing mogul” to her bio, now that she’s started her own imprint, Tiny Reparations Books.
Brave New World
Meet Merlin, the Bird-Identifying App
Heather Wolf, a part-time juggling impresario, feeds her birding habit with an app that pegs species—even on the Brooklyn Bridge—using both images and birdsong.
Comment
The Forever Trial at Guantánamo
President Biden moved to end the war in Afghanistan, but the proceedings against the remaining war-on-terror detainees, including the 9/11 suspects, drag on.
Higher Power Dept.
Harvard’s Atheist-Chaplain Controversy
The selection of Greg Epstein, a humanist rabbi, as the president of Harvard’s chaplains led to a small uproar among the school’s other religious leaders. Will it inspire a come-to-Jesus moment of the secular variety?
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
We Can Make It Work
Cartoons
1/18
“He started calling me his best friend years ago, and now it’s way too awkward to tell him I don’t feel the same way.”
Cartoon by Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby
Fiction
Fiction
Yente
Puzzles & Games Dept.
Poems
Goings On About Town
Night Life
Cynthia Erivo’s Soothing Contemporary Soul Music
On her début album, “Ch. 1 Vs. 1,” the English actor shows off the warmth and the depth of her stunning voice.
Tables for Two
Goose Barnacles and Basque Cooking at Haizea
At his tiny SoHo restaurant, the chef Mikel de Luis offers strikingly composed plates of croquettes, Kobe-beef tartare, and seafood that looks like it just jumped out of the ocean.
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