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PRICE $8.99 MAY 22, 2017 MAY 22, 2017 5 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 27 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Jeffrey Toobin on the G.O.P.’s silence; the psychiatry of Trump; advice from a boxer; being yoga; dial-a-feminist playwriting. ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH THE ARTS Fred Kaplan 34 Kind of New Cécile McLorin Salvant rethinks jazz. SHOUTS & MURMURS Susanna Fogel 39 Your Frozen Egg Has a Question ANNALS OF EDUCATION Jonathan Blitzer 40 American Studies Undocumented students’ efforts to get into college. A REPORTER AT LARGE Ian Parker 46 Are You My Mother? A custody case and the definition of parenthood. PROFILES Rebecca Mead 60 The Book Monk A master printer’s lifework. COMIC STRIP Edward Steed 65 “Mets Injury Schedule 2017” FICTION Samantha Hunt 70 “A Love Story” THE CRITICS ON TELEVISION Emily Nussbaum 78 “The Handmaid’s Tale.” LIFE AND LETTERS Thomas Mallon 81 J.F.K. at one hundred. BOOKS 84 Briefly Noted Laura Miller 88 Kei Miller’s “Augustown.” MUSICAL EVENTS Alex Ross 90 Two new concert halls in Germany. POP MUSIC Hua Hsu 92 Jlin’s “Black Origami.” POEMS Carrie Fountain 54 “Poem Without an Image” Stephen Burt 72 “Lamb’s Ear” COVER Barry Blitt “Ejected” DRAWINGS Jason Adam Katzenstein, Jason Patterson, Will McPhail, J. C. Duffy, Emily Flake, P. S. Mueller, Amy Hwang, Drew Dernavich, Bruce Eric Kaplan, David Sipress, Roz Chast, Alice Cheng, John O’Brien, Charlie Hankin, Amy Kurzweil SPOTS Hanna Barczyk CONTRIBUTORS Ian Parker (“Are You My Mother?,” p. 46) Rebecca Mead (“The Book Monk,” p. 60) has contributed to the magazine since has been a staff writer since 1997. “My 1994, and became a staff writer in 2000. Life in Middlemarch” is her latest book. Fred Kaplan (“Kind of New,” p. 34), a Jonathan Blitzer (“American Studies,” columnist for Slate, is the author of p. 40) writes for newyorker.com. “Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War.” His last piece for the mag- Susanna Fogel (Shouts & Murmurs, azine was about John Zorn. p. 39), the director and co-writer of the film “Life Partners,” is the author of Samantha Hunt (Fiction, p. 70) is the au- “Nuclear Family,” which comes out in thor of “The Seas,” “The Invention of July. Everything Else,” and, most recently, “Mr. Splitfoot.” Laura Miller (Books, p. 88), the author of “The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Thomas Mallon (Life and Letters, p. 81) Adventures in Narnia,” writes about is a novelist, an essayist, and a critic. “Fi- books and culture for Slate. nale: A Novel of the Reagan Years” came out in paperback in August. Jeffrey Toobin (Comment, p. 27) has writ- ten two books about the Supreme Court, Emily Nussbaum (On Television, p. 78), “The Nine” and “The Oath.” He is also The New Yorker’s television critic, won the author of “American Heiress: The the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2016. Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst,” which came Carrie Fountain (Poem, p. 54) has pub- out last August. lished two poetry collections, including, most recently, “Instant Winner.” Her Edward Steed (Comic Strip, p. 65) has first novel, “I’m Not Missing,” comes contributed cartoons to the magazine out next year. since 2013. NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more. PODCAST VIDEO Evan Osnos analyzes how Trump’s A profile of a student who firing of James Comey, the F.B.I. attends an underground university director, will damage his Presidency. for undocumented immigrants. SUBSCRIBERS: Get access to our magazine app for tablets and smartphones at the App Store, Amazon.com, or Google Play. (Access varies by location and device.) RHYNE EMILY RIGHT: 2 THE NEW YORKER, MAY 22, 2017 THE MAIL YOU’RE FIRED! Michael Flynn. Pence is presenting himself as a moderate, thoughtful Evan Osnos, in his article on the ways figure, at home in the halls of Con- that Donald Trump could be removed gress and on the international stage. from office, focusses on options out- He already looks and acts “Presiden- lined in the Constitution (“Endgames,” tial,” and there is a very real possibil- May 8th). But the example of Spiro ity that he could win in 2020. The Agnew, the Vice-President under only way to block Trump’s destruc- Nixon, who was removed from office tive juggernaut is for Democrats to in 1973, suggests another possible win control of either or both houses approach. Agnew’s fall was not di- of Congress. rectly connected with the Watergate Paul Scoles scandal but, rather, was connected 1New York City with allegations of corruption during his term as governor of Maryland. CHEAP EATS Charged with that crime, he resigned the Vice-Presidency as part of a plea I was glad to see Michael Grabell’s deal. If Trump turns out to have article on Case Farms and its exploita- gained the Presidency, in part, by tion of undocumented immigrants coöperating with Russian efforts to in slaughterhouses, but it’s not news smear Hillary Clinton, that not only that slaughterhouses and construc- might open him up to further inves- tion companies mistreat their workers tigation in Congress, as Osnos sug- (“Cut to the Bone,” May 8th). In the gests, but could also end in plea deals mid-seventies, I was a migrant worker that take Trump, and perhaps even in the Pacific Northwest and in Cali- Mike Pence, off the stage without ac- fornia, and we knew that the real prob- tual impeachment or invocations of lem was greedy farmers. We also knew the Twenty-fifth Amendment. that the laws meant to restrict those Michael H. Goldhaber farmers’ malfeasance had many loop- Berkeley, Calif. holes. Grabell should place greater em- phasis on the responsibility that the The possibility that Trump could be modern American consumer bears for forced out of office isn’t titillating— keeping hellholes like Case Farms in it’s terrifying. The Presidency is not operation. Right now, the average a beauty pageant, where the vacated American spends about five per cent position goes to the first runner-up, of her or his wages at the supermar- nor is it a congressional seat subject ket. In 1950, when I was born, it was to a special election. The Presidential seventeen per cent. The corporate con- line of succession is prescribed by the trol of agriculture depresses the price Constitution, and, if you think saying of food and the wages that farmers “President Trump” is scary, try saying and farmworkers receive. If the mid- “President Pence.” The Vice- President dle-class consumer were willing to pay is a deeply religious, far-right ultra- more for quality, those of us who are conservative, whose presence on the sustainable farmers would be able to national stage owes primarily to his make a living. anti-L.G.B.T. and anti-choice legis- Walter Haugen lation in Indiana. And there is no rea- Ferndale, Wash. son to think that he will be any less fanatical if he assumes the Presidency. • It looks to me as though the efforts Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, to position Pence as a replacement for address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited Trump began early on, by insulating for length and clarity, and may be published in him from the events surrounding the any medium. We regret that owing to the volume firing of the national-security adviser of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. THE NEW YORKER, MAY 22, 2017 3 MAY 17 Ð 23, 2017 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet for American Ballet Theatre, “Whipped Cream” (premièring on May 22, at the Met- ropolitan Opera House), is an extravaganza for the eyes and ears. Dancers dressed as candies, pralines, and liqueur bottles move to Richard Strauss’s decadent, swooping melodies from 1924. Their surreal world, conjured by the artist Mark Ryden, is a blend of kitsch and Old Masterly detail. The story is slight, but, then, isn’t that true of many of the old ballets? Most of it occurs in a dream. “It’s a ballet féerie,” Ratmansky says. “Ballet in its purest form.” PHOTOGRAPH BY MARCELO GOMES American Ballet Theatre The season opens with a bit of skirt-swishing fun: the Spanish-themed “Don Quixote.” The DANCE production, full of colorful crowd scenes, offers ample opportunities for showing off with fans, capes, guitars, and whatever else falls to hand. If it’s fireworks you’re after, see Isabella Boylston and Daniil Simkin (May 17 evening, May 20 mat- inée), but this is also a good opportunity to catch débuts, including Misty Copeland in the role of the passionate Kitri, on May 16 and the eve- ning of May 20. Christine Shevchenko, an excit- ing soloist, gets her first stab at a leading role in the May 17 matinée. The New York première of Alexei Ratmansky’s new fantasy ballet, “Whipped Cream,” takes place on the following Monday. • May 17 at 2 and 7:30, May 18-19 at 7:30, and May 20 at 2 and 8: “Don Quixote.” • May 22 at 6:30 and May 23 at 7:30: “Whipped Cream.” (Metro- politan Opera House, Lincoln Center. 212-477-3030. Through July 8.) New York City Ballet There are three programs to choose from in the final week of the “Here/Now” festival. On Pro- The Trisha Brown Dance Company performs the late choreographer’s iconic “Opal Loop,” at Jacob’s Pillow. gram 8, the highlight is Justin Peck’s new ballet, “The Decalogue,” set to a piano score by Sufjan Stevens (their third collaboration).