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PRICE $7.99 MAR. 16, 2015 WorldMags.net WorldMags.net WorldMags.net MARCH 16, 2015 5 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 19 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Amy Davidson on the Iran countdown; Chelsea Clinton’s alias; SoHo’s Hindu temple; Reggie Watts; Brooklyn, the musical. JILL LEPORE 26 RICHER AND POORER How much inequality can a democracy bear? IAN FRAZIER 33 OF YOUNGER DAYS ADAM GOPNIK 34 IN THE MEMORY WARD The battle over the Warburg Library. PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE 42 WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED Gerry Adams, the I.R.A., and a murder. FICTION SARAH BRAUNSTEIN 62 “ALL YOU HAVE TO DO” THE CRITICS A CRITIC AT LARGE DANIEL MENDELSOHN 70 Newly discovered poems by Sappho. BOOKS THOMAS MALLON 78 Mario Vargas Llosa’s “The Discreet Hero.” 83 Briefly Noted THE THEATRE HILTON ALS 84 “The Audience,” “Fish in the Dark.” THE ART WORLD PETER SCHJELDAHL 86 Native American art at the Met. THE CURRENT CINEMA ANTHONY LANE 88 “Cinderella,” “It Follows.” POEMS LEE UPTON 38 “The Apology” CLIVE JAMES 50 “Star System” liniers COVER “Hipster Stole” DRAWINGS Benjamin Schwartz, David Borchart, William Haefeli, Matthew Stiles Davis, Edward Steed, Tom Toro, John O’Brien, Tom Chitty, Drew Dernavich, Jack Ziegler, Edward Koren, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Roz Chast, Trevor Spaulding, Paul Noth,WorldMags.net David Sipress SPOTS Marcellus Hall THE NEW YORKER, MARCH 16, 2015 1 WorldMags.netCONTRIBUTORS patrick radden keefe (“WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED,” P. 42) is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and the winner of the 2014 National Magazine Award for feature writing. amy davidson (COMMENT, P. 19), a staff writer, has a column on newyorker.com. jill lepore (“RICHER AND POORER,” P. 26) is a professor of American history at Harvard. Her book “The Secret History of Wonder Woman” came out last fall. adam gopnik (“IN THE MEMORY WARD,” P. 34) has been a staff writer since 1986. “The Table Comes First” is his most recent book. clive james (POEM, P. 50) will publish two books of literary criticism, “Poetry Notebook” and “Latest Readings,” and “Sentenced to Life,” a collection of poems, later this year. He lives in Cambridge, England. sarah braunstein (FICTION, P. 62) teaches in the M.F.A. program at the Univer- sity of Southern Maine. “The Sweet Relief of Missing Children” is her first novel. daniel mendelsohn (A CRITIC AT LARGE, P. 70) is the author of seven books, includ- ing “Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture” and “The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million.” He teaches at Bard College. thomas Mallon (BOOKS, P. 78) is a novelist, essayist, and critic. His next book, “Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years,” comes out in September. anthony lane (THE CURRENT CINEMA, P. 88), a staff writer, is the magazine’s film critic and the author of “Nobody’s Perfect: Writings from The New Yorker.” liniers (COVER) is an Argentinean cartoonist. The third volume of his daily cartoon strip, “Macanudo,” is being published in English later this year. NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more than fifteen original stories a day. ALSO: DAILY COMMENT / CULTURAL COMMENT: VIDEO: The première episode of Opinions and reflections by Rebecca “Comma Queen,” a new series about Mead, Samantha Harvey, and others. all things grammar, with Mary Norris. PODCASTS: On the Political Scene, PAGE-TURNER: Criticism, contention, Laura Secor and Steve Coll join Dorothy and conversation about books and Wickenden for a discussion about Iran the writing life. and Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington. ELEMENTS: Our blog covering the worlds of science and technology. ARCHIVE: Every story since 2007, in easy-to-read text, along with thematic FICTION AND POETRY: Readings by collections of older stories. Sarah Braunstein and Lee Upton. 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.) WorldMags.net 2 THE NEW YORKER, MARCH 16, 2015 WorldMags.netTHE MAIL CUOMO’S WAY PAY DAYS Jeffrey Toobin’s Profile of Governor When reading James Surowiecki’s piece Andrew Cuomo is excellent, but it on above-market wages, one should note does not reflect his practice of de- that stagnation in workers’ pay goes ceit (“The Albany Chronicles,” Feb- hand in hand with the explosion of ruary 16th). In 2012, some of the peo- C.E.O. salaries (“A Fair Day’s Wage,” ple whom Cuomo had appointed to February 9th). In the past, executives a commission to review the Long Is- got rich in the course of their careers, land Power Authority’s response to a not all at once. They were paid to build storm did not endorse the recommen- their companies over time and develop dation he wanted (that LIPA should be relationships with workers and clients. disbanded). His response was to re- The rise of the blockbuster payout has write parts of the commission’s final encouraged C.E.O.s to go for big cor- report. In 2013, he claimed that the porate deals that often have no eco- Moreland Commission would be in- nomic rationale except to generate bo- dependent, and could investigate any- nuses for management, and which come one, but when the commission sub- at significant societal costs—including poenaed a firm that had made ads for extensive layoffs and reduced quality of the Governor’s campaign, Cuomo’s life in cities that formerly housed cor- staff demanded that the subpoenas be porate headquarters and manufactur- recalled; he also intervened when the ing facilities. But, with tens of millions commission sought to subpoena a of dollars in golden parachutes and other trade group that had supported him. incentive payments, top executives have He ultimately shut down the com- little reason to stick around and deal mission before it released a final re- with the aftermath of their decisions. port, as part of a back-room deal with Steven Bavaria the legislators whom the committee Chestnut Ridge, N.Y. was supposed to be investigating. 1 Cuomo later insisted that the com- SOCIAL STUDIES mission was under his control, in con- tradiction of his previous statements, Kelefa Sanneh, in his review of “The not to mention his own executive Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black order. Youth,” by Orlando Patterson and Ethan Matthew A. Feigin Fosse, seems to reveal the irrelevance New York City of sociology as a discipline to both the understanding of and the solution to Toobin mentions Cuomo’s disdain for problems in the African-American unions but not the extent to which community (“Don’t Be Like That,” Feb- he refuses to deal with them. I am a ruary 9th). Instead of developing clear professor at Queens College, of the hypotheses that could lead to testable, City University of New York. The robust, and replicable interventions, so- contract for CUNY professors ran out ciology, ostensibly a descriptive rather in the fall of 2010, the year that than a normative discipline, appears to Cuomo was first elected governor. The be caught up in doctrinal battles and union has been attempting to nego- anxiety over political correctness. tiate a new contract since then, but Saul Raw the state has not responded with a Brooklyn, N.Y. financial package. Because of the Tay- • lor Law, strikes by state workers are Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail illegal. As a result, wages at CUNY to [email protected]. Letters may be have been frozen for the past five years. edited for length and clarity, and may be pub- lished in any medium. We regret that owing to David Richter the volume of correspondence we cannot reply New York City to everyWorldMags.net letter or return letters. THE NEW YORKER, MARCH 16, 2015 3 WorldMags.net WorldMags.net WorldMags.netGOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN MARCH WEDNESDAY • THURSDAY • FRIDAY • SATURDAY • SUNDAY • MONDAY • TUESDAY 2015 11TH 12TH 13TH 14TH 15TH 16TH 17TH For more than half a century, the American choral sound has been defined by the great college ensembles of the Upper Midwest, such as the St. Olaf Choir, with its lusciously layered tones. But recently art | Dance | Night Life young New Yorkers in groups like Roomful of Teeth (pictured above) have been blazing a new trail, movies | The Theatre forming intimately scaled ensembles of brave solo singers whose lean timbres resemble those of Classical Music the early-music and new-music vocal groups of Europe. On March 17, Roomful of Teeth collaborates with Above & Beyond the outstanding instrumentalists of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Met Museum’s Temple of Dendur. They will perform “Drone Mass,” a world première by the Icelandic composer Jóhann Food & Drink Jóhannsson, whose sleek score for the film “The Theory of Everything” was nominated for an Academy Award. WorldMags.netPhotograph by Jonno Rattman Museums and Libraries the verve of Bahia. Through May Galleries—Downtown Metropolitan Museum 16. (Americas Society, Park Ave. at Jan Groover “Discovering Japanese Art: 68th St. 212-249-8950.) The New York photographer, who WorldMags.netAmerican Collectors 3 died in 2011, is best known for her and the Met” elegantly jumbled still-lifes. These The best collection of Japanese art Galleries—Chelsea stark, unpopulated landscapes were on the East Coast is housed at the Subodh Gupta made in the early eighties, on forays Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, The centerpiece of the Indian artist’s into Brooklyn’s industrial margins. but this centennial showcase of the new show is humbler and more The subjects—warehouse façades, Met’s holdings is strong and varied affecting than his more predictably parked trucks, empty lots—are far enough that New Yorkers can save grandiose efforts: a twelve-foot-wide from picturesque, but the plati- ART themselves the trip.

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