PRICE $8.99 JULY 6 & 13, 2020 DO YOU LIKE SAVING MONEY? Get GEICO. geico.com | 1-800-947-AUTO (2886) | Local Agent Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states, in all GEICO companies, or in all situations. Boat and PWC coverages are underwritten by GEICO Marine Insurance Company. Motorcycle and ATV coverages are underwritten by GEICO Indemnity Company. Homeowners, renters and condo coverages are written through non-affi liated insurance companies and are secured through the GEICO Insurance Agency. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. GEICO Gecko image © 1999-2019. © 2019 GEICO JULY 6 & 13, 2020 4 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 15 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Amy Davidson Sorkin on the new COVID-19 spikes; the fireworks conundrum; Bill Nighy’s threads; problematic wallpaper; prepper real estate; summer evening. AMERICAN CHRONICLES Alec MacGillis 20 The Dollar-Store Deaths A business model that harms vulnerable communities. SHOUTS & MURMURS Craig Thomas 27 Studio Notes on Your Rom-Com Screenplay ANNALS OF SCIENCE Susan Orlean 28 Rabbit Fever A deadly animal virus spreads in the U.S. A REPORTER AT LARGE Larissa MacFarquhar 34 An Ocean Apart How the outside world came to the Falkland Islands. THE POLITICAL SCENE Jeffrey Toobin 46 The Surrender Why the Mueller investigation was a failure. FICTION Hari Kunzru 56 “A Transparent Woman” THE CRITICS ON TELEVISION Doreen St. Félix 66 “I May Destroy You.” A CRITIC AT LARGE Leo Robson 69 Joyce Carol Oates’s “Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.” BOOKS 73 Briefly Noted Jonathan Dee 75 David Mitchell’s “Utopia Avenue.” MUSICAL EVENTS Alex Ross 78 Musicians react to the pandemic and the protests. THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 80 “Irresistible,” “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.” POEMS Rita Dove 50 “Pedestrian Crossing, Charlottesville” Megan Fernandes 62 “Shanghai” COVER Kadir Nelson “Distant Summer” DRAWINGS Elisabeth McNair, Sam Gross, Ellis Rosen, Emily Flake, Patrick McKelvie, Benjamin Schwartz, Bishakh Som, Lars Kenseth, Paul Karasik, Harry Bliss and Steve Martin, Liana Finck, Seth Fleishman, Brendan Loper, Amy Hwang, Roz Chast, Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby, Sofia Warren, Matilda Borgström SPOTS Christoph Abbrederis Created by the editors of ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, CONTRIBUTORS AD PRO is the members-only resource for design industry professionals Larissa MacFarquhar (“An Ocean Apart,” Jeffrey Toobin (“The Surrender,” p. 46) p. 34), a staff writer, is the author of is a staff writer. His latest book, “True “Strangers Drowning: Impossible Ide- Crimes and Misdemeanors: The In- alism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge vestigation of Donald Trump,” will be to Help.” published in August. Alec MacGillis (“The Dollar-Store Susan Orlean (“Rabbit Fever,” p. 28), Deaths,” p. 20), a reporter for ProPublica, a staff writer, is the author of, most wrote “The Cynic: The Political Ed- recently, “The Library Book.” ucation of Mitch McConnell.” This article is a collaboration between The Rumaan Alam (The Talk of the Town, New Yorker and ProPublica. p. 17) has published three novels, in- cluding the forthcoming “Leave the Megan Fernandes (Poem, p. 62) is the World Behind.” author of the poetry collection “Good Boys.” Rita Dove (Poem, p. 50), a Pulitzer Prize winner and a former U.S. Poet Laure- Kadir Nelson (Cover) won a Caldecott ate, received a W. E. B. Du Bois Medal Medal for his illustrations for Kwame from Harvard University in 2019. She Alexander’s book-length poem, “The teaches at the University of Virginia. Undefeated.” Hari Kunzru (Fiction, p. 56) has writ- Anna Boots (The Talk of the Town, ten six novels, including “Gods With- p. 16) is a member of the magazine’s out Men,” “White Tears,” and “Red editorial staff. Pill,” which comes out in September. PHOTO BY PAUL RAESIDE PAUL BY PHOTO Leo Robson (A Critic at Large, p. 69) Craig Thomas (Shouts & Murmurs, MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES is a contributing writer for The New p. 27), a television and film writer, is a Statesman. co-creator of “How I Met Your Mother.” .Exclusive, must-read industry and market news .Trend reports and the best THIS WEEK ON NEWYORKER.COM new product sources .Effective tools and events to grow your business .Searchable AD archive spanning 100 years of magazine issues .More essential resources that only AD has access to LETTER FROM SILICON VALLEY N EWS DESK Anna Wiener on the rise of ghost How can communities defund the kitchens and the future of their police? Alexis Okeowo on the groups once-marginal business model. that are reimagining safety. Join now and save 20% off your annual membership ARCHDIGEST.COM / JOINNOW Download the New Yorker app for the latest news, commentary, criticism, and humor, plus this week’s magazine and all issues back to 2008. YORKER THE NEW IKE EDEANI FOR CLAPHAM; RIGHT: JAMES LEFT: THE MAIL ICELAND’S VIRUS STRATEGY as millions were in 1942, to win the war. “Cape Cod Morning” is similarly I found Elizabeth Kolbert’s report on fixated on a woman, who is not in the Iceland’s response to the COVID-19 pan- kitchen but in a window, looking out demic thought-provoking (“Indepen- at the world. These sorts of individu- dent People,” June 8th & 15th). It is alistic women appear throughout Hop- difficult not to compare that country’s per’s œuvre. In “The Office at Night,” actions with those of the United States, we see a woman testing the boundaries but we must recall the social factors of traditional morality; in “Hotel Room,” that played a role in Iceland’s outcomes. a woman reading alone in her rented Kolbert states that by mid-May Ice- room; in “Tables for Ladies,” a scene land had tested 15.5 per cent of its pop- in which women can have lunch by ulation for the virus, which amounts themselves, without needing a man to to sixty thousand people. Meanwhile, legitimatize the outing; and, in “Morn- the U.S. had tested only 3.4 per cent of ing in a City,” a nude woman stand- its population—eleven million people. ing before a window, defying conven- That difference in scale is important tion. Hopper was perhaps illiberal in to keep in mind. In addition, Iceland, his politics, but, as these works testify, as Kolbert mentions, possesses one of his art was frequently about the after- the most genetically homogeneous math of social revolution. populations in the world—a fact that James R. Brett must have made virus sequencing 1Temecula, Calif. more straightforward. This genetic sim- ilarity also has cultural implications. REMEMBERING WARHOL As one interviewee said, “Everybody knows everyone in Iceland.” A sense As Joan Acocella attests, Blake Gop- of solidarity may explain why Iceland- nik’s biography of Andy Warhol is prob- ers so willingly follow protocols. Fi- ably the most complete chronicle to date nally, Iceland’s geographic isolation and about my uncle (Books, June 8th & 15th). small size have enabled it to contain However, Gopnik furthers a miscon- the virus more easily than a large, cos- ception about Warhol’s death, in 1987, mopolitan country, such as the U.S., which also goes unexamined by Aco- can. Although the U.S. can learn much cella. Gopnik implies that Warhol died from Iceland, we must first disentan- because he waited so long to have his gle circumstantial variables from the gallbladder removed. While that is par- Icelanders’ proactive management of tially true, my family and I believe that this public-health crisis. New York Hospital made some mis- Bernard J. Clark III takes that contributed to my uncle’s 1Lewes, Del. death from heart failure. My family and the Warhol estate brought a wrong- HOPPER’S WOMEN ful-death suit against the hospital, which, in 1991, was settled. Today, we marvel Peter Schjeldahl, in his piece about at the incredible influence that Warhol Edward Hopper, draws attention to continues to have on the world, decades the artist’s brand of “wary individual- after he passed away. ism” (The Art World, June 8th & 15th). James Warhola I was thus surprised that he did not Long Island City, N.Y. mention Hopper’s preoccupation with women’s growing independence during • the twentieth century. What was Hop- Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, per trying to tell us about the woman address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited seated at the diner in Greenwich Vil- for length and clarity, and may be published in lage in “Nighthawks”? Maybe simply any medium. We regret that owing to the volume that she is emancipated and working, of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, New York City museums, galleries, theatres, music venues, and cinemas have closed. Here’s a selection of culture to be found online and streaming. JULY 1 – 14, 2020 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN On July 2, Caramoor, a summertime classical-music destination housed on a verdant estate near Katonah, New York, inaugurates a boldly reconceived festival, featuring both online concerts and outdoor events that allow for social distancing. To kick things off, the superb pianist Inon Barnatan (pictured above) live-streams a recital of Schubert’s ebullient Sonata in A Major (D. 959) and his own transcription of Rachmaninoff ’s enigmatic “Symphonic Dances” from the stage of Caramoor’s newly renovated Music Room. PHOTOGRAPH BY VICTOR LLORENTE 1 can-American designer, a defining figure of disco and, particularly, the subgenre of quiet A RT the nineteen-eighties fashion scene. Its trove storm, as exemplified in Teddy Pendergrass’s of images and anecdotes illuminates Smith’s torrid “Close the Door.”—Michaelangelo Matos expansive, democratic vision and the inno- Edward Hopper vations and influence of his label WilliWear, I haven’t seen this large show at the Beyeler while charting his tragically short career.