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PRICE $8.99 AUG. 8 & 15, 2016 AUGUST 8 & 15, 2016 4 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 19 THE TA L K OF THE TOWN Steve Coll on Russia’s election games; Gloria Allred; Morgan Freeman; pub rock; James Surowiecki on executive action. ANNALS OF POLITICS Jill Lepore 24 The War and the Roses The lessons of the party Conventions. SHOUTS & MURMURS Ian Frazier 33 Outdone THE SPORTING SCENE Sam Knight 34 Prance Master The star rider who is transforming dressage. A REPORTER AT LARGE Jon Lee Anderson 40 The Distant Shore What made an isolated Peruvian tribe kill? PERSONAL HISTORY Lauren Collins 52 Love in Translation Marriage to a Frenchman. SKETCHBOOK Barry Blitt 59 “Behind the Scenes at the D.N.C.” FICTION Te s s a Ha d l ey 62 “Dido’s Lament” THE CRITICS POP MUSIC Kelefa Sanneh 68 Gucci Mane’s “Everybody Looking.” BOOKS Adelle Waldman 72 Jay McInerney’s “Bright, Precious Days.” Dan Chiasson 75 Jana Prikryl’s “The After Party.” 77 Briefly Noted ON TELEVISION Emily Nussbaum 78 “BoJack Horseman.” THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 80 “Jason Bourne,” “Little Men.” POEMS Nicole Sealey 31 “A Violence” James Richardson 47 “How I Became a Saint” COVER Mark Ulriksen “Something in the Air” DRAWINGS Paul Noth, Edward Steed, Jason Adam Katzenstein, Avi Steinberg, Sam Marlow, Roz Chast, Amy Hwang, Will McPhail, Darrin Bell, Liam Francis Walsh SPOTS Ben Wiseman THE NEW YO R K E R , AUGUST 8 & 15, 2016 1 CONTRIBUTORS Jill Lepore (“The War and the Roses,” Jon Lee Anderson (“The Distant Shore,” p. 24), a professor of history at Harvard, p. 40) is a staf writer who has reported is writing a history of the United States. for the magazine from various parts of the world, including Africa, the Mid- Steve Coll (Comment, p. 19) is the dean dle East, and South America. of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and a staf Ian Frazier (Shouts & Murmurs, p. 33), writer. He has published seven books, a longtime contributor, recently pub- including “Ghost Wars.” lished “Hogs Wild: Selected Reporting Pieces.” Sheelah Kolhatkar (The Talk of the Town, p. 20) recently joined the magazine as Lauren Collins (“Love in Translation,” a staf writer. p. 52) is a staf writer living in Paris. Her book, “When in French: Love in Nicole Sealey (Poem, p. 31), the programs a Second Language,” will be out in director for the Cave Canem Founda- September. tion, is the author of “The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named,” Te s s a Ha d l ey (Fiction, p. 62) has pub- her début poetry collection. lished six novels, including “Clever Girl” and, most recently, “The Past.” Sam Knight (“Prance Master,” p. 34) is a journalist living in London. Adelle Waldman (Books, p. 72) is the au- thor of “The Love Afairs of Nathan- Mark Ulriksen (Cover) has contributed iel P.,” her first novel. to The New Yorker since 1994. A retro- spective exhibition of his work will be Emily Nussbaum (On Television, p. 78), on view at the Galerie Oblique, in Paris, the magazine’s television critic, won in September. this year’s Pulitzer Prize for criticism. NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more. PODCASTS VIDEO New fction from the magazine. In the latest flm in our Screening This week, Tessa Hadley reads her Room series, Lucy meets an amorous short story “Dido’s Lament.” cosmonaut on Chatroulette. 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.) JOE DARREN RIGHT: 2 THE NEW YO R K E R , AUGUST 8 & 15, 2016 THE MAIL UNEARTHING THE TRUTH Berger’s claims about his discover- ies, though not impossible, might be Paige Williams’s Profile of the con- called premature. troversial paleoanthropologist Lee Joseph A. Reveles Ber ger reveals the discrepancies 1La Mirada, Calif. between the claims that Berger makes about his discoveries and his ROBBING THE SYSTEM actual accomplishments (“Digging for Glory,” June 27th). Numerous Patrick Radden Keefe’s article on scientists have questioned Berger’s bank secrecy at H.S.B.C. mentions assertion that the fossils he found a controversial tax law that requires in the Rising Star cave system, in overseas banks to give the I.R.S. the South Africa, displayed “ritual- names and account information of ized behaviors directed toward the American clients (“The Bank Rob- dead”—a claim that, if true, would ber,” May 30th). Keefe characterizes mean Homo sapiens is not the only the law, called the Foreign Account species with funerary practices. Sci- Tax Compliance Act, as a long-over- ence is supposed to provide a mea- due move against banking secrecy. sure of certainty, but, increasingly, But, as a longtime American resi- we are blurring the distinction be- dent of the Geneva area, where so tween speculation, supported hy- much of the financial mischief took pothesis, and well-proven theory. As place, I feel the law’s other efects the standards of scientific certainty should be noted. The act often re- decline, the public loses faith in sci- quires Americans with overseas bank entific claims, and in scientists. As accounts to fill out reams of paper- a result, even established science, work, exacting stif penalties for those such as climate change or Darwin- who fail to do so, even inadvertently. ian evolution, which we know to Law-abiding citizens struggle to find be beyond debate, is now being banks willing to shoulder the cost of questioned, especially when there compliance, which pushes us toward are political, economic, or cultural a few large banks. This reduces ac- implications. cess to basic banking services for Michael Mallary the millions of Americans who live Sterling, Mass. abroad while exacerbating the “too big to fail” phenomenon. Given the Williams sheds light on the sig- costs, one would hope that the ben- nificant challenges researchers face efits of the law would be consider- when gathering hard-to-find data able, but it seems unlikely that the and publishing those findings. She act deters tax evasion. By some esti- also illustrates one of the main de- mates, less than one-eighth of the bates in the scientific community American citizens who live overseas today: how to discern the diferences file the forms. The burden of the law between scientific theory and sci- falls not on tax-dodging million - ence fiction. This has always been a aires but on ordinary Americans liv- challenge—particularly in anthro- ing abroad. pology and its subdisciplines, be- Andrus Hatem cause the field is so broad—but has Ferney-Voltaire, France only become more difcult as more and more fossils are found. If pa- • leoanthropology is to have any suc- Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to cess explaining the stages of human [email protected]. Letters may be edited evolution, it must rely more heavily for length and clarity, and may be published in on universally accepted methodol- any medium. We regret that owing to the volume ogies. It is easy to see why some of of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. THE NEW YO R K E R , AUGUST 8 & 15, 2016 3 AUGUST 3 – 16, 2016 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN This summer, the U.S. will send a sixteen-year-old, Kanak Jha, to Rio—Jha may be the youngest male to qualify for table tennis in Olympic history, but the sport remains graciously ageless. At Riis Park Beach Bazaar, in Queens, Jared Sochinsky has opened the Push, a pop-up for games, installing beachside tables that have attracted ringers like the seven-year-old Cole Weiner, above. It will be open weekends through Labor Day, along with Fletcher’s BBQ, Ample Hills Creamery, and a bar, which won’t serve as indiscriminately. PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS PRIOR en’s Shakespeare Company became a form of sal- vation. The show (which Wolpe performs in rep- ertory with a three-person “Macbeth”) has its trite THE THEATRE side, but it’s hard not to credit Wolpe for fearless- ness, sincerity, and good humor. (HERE, 145 Sixth 1 Ave., near Spring St. 212-352-3101. Through Aug. 14.) roles) are fortysomething Norwegian professionals, OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS charming, erudite, full of talk. Mona is an official in Small Mouth Sounds the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, and Terje is a so- Bess Wohl’s play, directed by Rachel Chavkin, is The Layover cial scientist. After a while, we learn that, through about six characters who try to connect to them- Trip Cullman directs a drama by Leslye Headland some trick of faith and will, Terje and Mona were selves, their guru, and one another during a silent (“Bachelorette”), about two strangers who meet on largely responsible, behind the scenes, for the dis- retreat in upstate New York. Wohl uses the retreat a plane when their flight is delayed. (Second Stage, cussions that led to the 1993 Oslo Accord, between to reveal how social convention cracks when real 305 W. 43rd St. 212-246-4422. Previews begin Aug. 9.) the Israelis and the Palestine Liberation Organi- intimacy is required. The flighty Alicia (the phe- zation. Although Rogers mixes fact and fiction, he nomenal Zoë Winters) eats potato chips noisily, The New York International Fringe Festival uses reality not to buoy his imagination but to shore while Rodney (Babak Tafti, free and humorous), The wide-ranging festival returns for its twenti- up a “Family of Man”-type plea to end war and the most self-consciously enlightened member of eth year, offering experiments, oddities, and ab- hate.