The New Yorker, September 21, 2015
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PRICE $7.99 SEPT. 21, 2015 THE STYLE ISSUE SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 13 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 41 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Amy Davidson on the Syrian refugee crisis; papal traffic; Ryan Reynolds; adapting “Tom Sawyer”; James Surowiecki on boomerang C.E.O.s. Evan Osnos 50 THE IMAM’S CURSE Was a Florida family financing terrorism? john kenney 59 WHY THE LONG FACE? lizzie Widdicombe 60 PERFECT PITCHING From reality star to celebrity entrepreneur. john Lahr 66 WILD AT HEART The paradox of Julianne Moore. Leanne Shapton 71 “RECENTLY FAVORITED” rebecca Mead 76 THE COUTURE CLUB The world’s wealthiest shoppers. Photographs by Luca Locatelli. FICTION AMos oz 88 “MY CURLS HAVE BLOWN ALL THE WAY TO CHINA” THE CRITICS A CRITIC AT LARGE PATRICK RADDEN Keefe 94 When Whitey Bulger became an informant for the F.B.I., who was in control? BOOKS Adam Gopnik 100 “Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning.” 105 Briefly Noted Continued on page 6 4 THE NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 ON TELEVISION emily nussbaum 106 The rise of the small-screen rom-com. THE ART WORLD Peter schjeldahl 108 Picasso’s sculptures. THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 110 “Sicario.” POEM Frieda Hughes 91 “Selfie” greg foley COVER “Crosswalk” DRAWINGS Michael Crawford, Tom Chitty, Roz Chast, Barbara Smaller, Kaamran Hafeez, David Sipress, Farley Katz, P. C. Vey, Michael Maslin, Paul Noth, Drew Dernavich, Will McPhail SPOTS Olimpia Zagnoli 6 THE NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 CONTRIBUTORS rebecca mead (“THE COUTURE CLUB,” P. 76) has been writing for The john lahr (“WILD AT HEART,” P. 66), a former senior theatre critic for New Yorker since 1997. “My Life in Middlemarch” is her latest book. the magazine, won this year’s National Book Critics Circle Award for biography for “Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the luca Locatelli (PHOTOGRAPHS, PP. 76-86) is a photographer and Flesh,” which comes out in paperback later this month, along with filmmaker based in Milan. He is currently working on two photo- a new book, “Joy Ride: Show People and Their Shows.” graphic projects: “United Colors of War,” about the business of war since 9/11, and “Global Energy,” which documents the different amos oz (FICTION, P. 88) has written more than thirty books, includ- ways to produce energy. ing “Judas,” which won the 2015 Internationale Literaturpreis, given by Haus der Kulturen der Welt for excellence in translated amy davidson (COMMENT, P. 41) contributes regularly to Comment contemporary literature, and which will be published in the U.S. in and writes a column for newyorker.com. the fall of 2016. A film of his 2002 novel, “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” has just been released in Israel. evan osnos (“THE IMAM’S CURSE,” P. 50), a staff writer, is the author of “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in Frieda Hughes (POEM, P. 91) is an English poet, painter, and chil- the New China,” for which he won the 2014 National Book Award dren’s-book author. Her new book, “Alternative Values: Poems & for nonfiction. Paintings,” comes out in October. john kenney (SHOUTS & MURMURS, P. 59) is the author of the novel adam gopnik (BOOKS, P. 100) has published several books, includ- “Truth in Advertising.” ing “Paris to the Moon” and “The Table Comes First.” tad friend (THE TALK OF THE TOWN, P. 44) has been a staff writer emily nussbaum (ON TELEVISION, P. 106), a National Magazine since 1998. His most recent book is “Cheerful Money: Me, My Award winner for columns and commentary, has been the maga- Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor.” zine’s television critic since 2011. lizzie widdicombe (“PERFECT PITCHING,” P. 60), an editor of The anthony lane (THE CURRENT CINEMA, P. 110) is a staff writer and the Talk of the Town, writes frequently for the magazine. author of “Nobody’s Perfect: Writings from The New Yorker.” Leanne Shapton (SKETCHBOOK, P. 71) is an artist, author, and pub- greg foley (COVER) is an award-winning designer and the creative lisher. Her books include “Swimming Studies,” which won the director of Visionaire. He is the author and illustrator of eight chil- 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography, and dren’s books, including the “Thank You Bear” series, and his work “Women in Clothes,” written with Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits. has been exhibited at MOMA and at the Centre Pompidou, in Paris. NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more than fifteen original stories a day. ALSO: DAILY COMMENT / CULTURAL COMMENT: Opinions and analysis by NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS: Exclusive announcements of the long Alex Ross, James Carroll, and others. lists for young people’s literature, poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. VIDEO: The latest episode of “The Cartoon Lounge.” Plus, Richard HUMOR: A Daily Cartoon on the news, by Kaamran Hafeez. Brody on Terence Nance’s “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty,” from 2012. PODCASTS: On the Political Scene, Philip Gourevitch and Mattathias Schwartz join Dorothy Wickenden for a discussion SLIDE SHOWS: Photographs of Picasso sculptures from a new of the Syrian refugee crisis. On Out Loud, Louis Menand and exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. Plus, photographs from Thessaly La Force talk with Amelia Lester and David Haglund Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda show, held in Portofino. about Joan Didion. 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.) 8 THE NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 THE MAIL SAVING THE PLANET be greatly ameliorated if we were able to reduce population, and this notion should Elizabeth Kolbert, in her article on Chris- be discussed. The earth provides finite tiana Figueres and the urgency for ac- resources and we cannot grow in num- tion at the Paris Convention on Climate ber indefinitely. Change, mentions the need for “negative Joseph Friedman emissions” (“The Weight of the World,” 1Ashland, Ore. August 24th). Kolbert writes that CO2 levels are already so grave that the world SAVING THE ART has to start “sucking CO2 out of the air and storing it underground—something As someone who has written extensively no one, at this point, knows how to do.” about the artist Jack Smith, I was pleased As the co-founder and chair of the Car- to learn from Emma Allen’s article that bon Underground, I would point out that Barbara Gladstone, the gallerist who there is a natural system for this: photo- purchased his archive in 2008, donated synthesis. Plants already process tens of his papers to the Fales Library, at N.Y.U. billions of tons of CO2 every year in the (The Talk of the Town, August 31st). natural cycling of carbon. We must figure Smith was no longer living in a Greene out how to optimize this process; many Street loft when he died (of AIDS- scientists agree that the natural carbon related causes), in 1989. His last apart- sink of the soil could be an indispensable ment was a squalid sixth-floor walkup tool for reversing climate change. France on First Avenue. Smith, who was intes- recently announced a project to increase tate, sold virtually nothing; much of his soil organic matter (carbon) by 0.4 per work survives because he gave it to cent a year, which the country’s agricul- friends. At the time of his death, his ar- tural minister said would “stock the equiv- chive was found crammed into a room alent of the anthropogenic carbon gas covered with what he would have called produced by humanity today.” Rattan Lal, “roach crust” and perfumed with cat a professor at the Ohio State University urine. That Smith’s art survives at all is who has advised the French agricultural largely thanks to his friend the artist ministry, has long written about the ca- Penny Arcade. She held on to his apart- pacity of the planet to take CO2 out of ment as best she could; she packed his the atmosphere and store it in the soil. pieces and preserved his legacy. I joined As we seek methods to “decarbonize” our her in approaching institutions and fossil- fuel economy, we should not min- foundations, hoping that some of them imize the power of forests, farms, and would take Smith’s work. Only two were fields to “recarbonize” the soil and help interested: Anthology Film Archives, reverse climate change. which provided facilities to restore one Tom Newmark of Smith’s movies, and P.S.1, where ma- San Isidro de Peñas Blancas, Costa Rica terial was stored in advance of the 1997 exhibition that reopened the museum. I found it telling that Kolbert’s piece Smith’s work remained in legal limbo omitted one key variable that seems to for nearly two decades. Around 2000, always be off the table in conversations his papers were organized by a profes- about anthropogenic climate change: sional archivist with a donation to Fales global population. The article takes it as in mind. a given that the population will increase J. Hoberman by two billion people in the near term, New York City which would mean that the economy would also have to grow, while at the • same time carbon emissions would have Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to be reduced. It is unlikely that both of to [email protected]. Letters may be those essential needs will be met in tan- edited for length and clarity, and may be pub- lished in any medium. We regret that owing to dem, as Kolbert’s article makes clear.