PRICE $8.99 MAY 24, 2021 Helping millions of businesses adapt and recover restaurant open now In 1958, Virginia and Ben Ali opened Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, DC. Today, it’s a destination for people from all over the world— but when the pandemic hit and Ben’s couldn’t welcome customers inside, they had to adapt. In the past year alone, Google has launched dozens of ways to help small businesses like Ben’s Chili Bowl. By updating their free Business Profi le on Google with new options like curbside pickup and no-contact delivery, Virginia and her family kept the restaurant going until they were able to open for dine-in once again. Find free resources for your small business at google.com/grow Ben’s Chili Bowl 4.4 Open • Closes 9PM DIRECTIONS CALL SAVE MESSAGE ORDER ONLINE Curbside pickup No-contact delivery MAY 24, 2021 6 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 13 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Nicholas Lemann on Liz Cheney and the G.O.P.; Black cuisine meets the small screen; a socially distanced slam; the scattering of Gem Spa; David Byrne’s dance revival. LETTER FROM ENGLAND Rebecca Mead 18 A Giant Mystery Searching for the origins of a folk-art monument. SKETCHBOOK Peter Kuper 21 “The Brood” SHOUTS & MURMURS Paul Rudnick 25 The Heartful Home AMERICAN CHRONICLES Jill Lepore 26 It’s Just Too Much The durability of burnout. THE SPORTING SCENE William Finnegan 30 Blood on the Tracks Is horse racing too cruel to continue? PROFILES Michael Schulman 42 Hot Topic Wendy Williams says what she thinks. FICTION Keith Ridgway 50 “The Party” THE CRITICS BOOKS Joan Acocella 60 The corporeal art of Francis Bacon. 67 Briefly Noted ON TELEVISION Doreen St. Félix 68 Barry Jenkins adapts “The Underground Railroad.” THE THEATRE Vinson Cunningham 70 “Zoetrope,” “The Forbidden City.” THE ART WORLD Peter Schjeldahl 72 Frieze emerges from the pandemic. THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 74 “The Dry,” “The Perfect Candidate.” POEMS Richie Hofmann 37 “Under Limestone” Rachel Hadas 56 “In the Cloud” COVER Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu “Venturing Out” DRAWINGS Roz Chast, David Sipress, Elisabeth McNair, Frank Cotham, Charlie Hankin, Carolita Johnson, John O’Brien, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Seth Fleishman, Barbara Smaller, Paul Noth, Lars Kenseth, Liana Finck, Sam Gross, Christopher Weyant SPOTS Ryan Peltier NEW ROUTES TO NEW CUSTOMERS E-COMMERCE AT THE SPEED OF NOW Business is changing and the United States Postal Service is changing with it. We’re offering e-commerce solutions from fast, reliable shipping to returns right from any address in America. Find out more at usps.com/newroutes. Scheduled delivery date and time depend on origin, destination and Post Office™ acceptance time. Some restrictions apply. For additional information, visit the Postage Calculator at http://postcalc.usps.com. For details on availability, visit usps.com/pickup. PROMOTION CONTRIBUTORS William Finnegan (“Blood on the Tracks,” Rebecca Mead (“A Giant Mystery,” p. 30) became a staff writer in 1987. His p. 18), a staff writer since 1997, most book “Barbarian Days” won the 2016 recently published “My Life in Mid- Pulitzer Prize for biography. dlemarch.” Jill Lepore (“It’s Just Too Much,” p. 26), Michael Schulman (The Talk of the a professor of history at Harvard, is the Town, p. 16; “Hot Topic,” p. 42) is a staff host of the podcast “The Last Archive.” writer and the author of “Her Again: Her fourteenth book, “If Then,” came Becoming Meryl Streep.” out last year. Keith Ridgway (Fiction, p. 50) has writ- Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu (Cover) is a ten five novels, including “Animals,” Turkish artist. “Hawthorn & Child,” and “A Shock,” which will be out in July. Joan Acocella (Books, p. 60) has been a staff writer since 1995. Her most recent Wyna Liu (Puzzles & Games Dept.) is book is “Twenty-eight Artists and Two an associate puzzle editor at the New Saints.” York Times and an assistant editor at the American Values Club crossword. Peter Kuper (Sketchbook, p. 21), the 2020-21 Jean Strouse Fellow at the New Richie Hofmann (Poem, p. 37), the au- York Public Library’s Cullman Cen- thor of “Second Empire,” will publish ter, has been contributing to The New a new poetry collection, “A Hundred Yorker since 1993. Lovers,” in 2022. Rachel Hadas (Poem, p. 56) will pub- Paul Rudnick (Shouts & Murmurs, lish a new book of poems, “Love and p. 25) is a regular contributor to the Dread,” and an essay collection, “Piece magazine. His new novel is “Playing by Piece,” this year. the Palace.” THIS WEEK ON NEWYORKER.COM I L L E I R B A G A I N I G R CULTURAL COMMENT ANNALS OF TECHNOLOGY I V : T The term “involuted” has entered the Anna Louie Sussman reports on the H G I R Chinese lexicon to describe a burned- promise and the perils of a new spate ; G N out generation, Yi-Ling Liu writes. of fertility startups. A Y A U H O A I X : Download the New Yorker app for the latest news, commentary, criticism, T F E and humor, plus this week’s magazine and all issues back to 2008. L THE MAIL SCOOT! we move fast without e-scooters. If the city and the state want to allow New John Seabrook’s article on the arrival York to be the next battlefield in the of electric scooters in New York City scooter wars, the mayor had better reg- points out that many riders are shift- ulate them with a firm hand. ing to scooters from public transit, not Paul Castaybert Commemorative from cars (“Scooter City,” April 26th & 1Larchmont, N.Y. Cover Reprints May 3rd). This may be the case, but it doesn’t cast a negative light on the new PORTRAIT OF A DAUGHTER Search our extensive e-vehicles. Scooters offer better door- archive of weekly step-to-doorstep travel than bus and I appreciate that Hilton Als, in his re- rail lines, and they are available at a mo- view of the Alice Neel retrospective at covers dating back to ment’s notice, rather than on a specific the Met, highlights motherhood’s com- 1925 and commemorate schedule. Discouraging the use of scoot- plicated role in Neel’s life and in her a milestone with a ers because they result in a “mode shift” paintings (The Art World, April 26th & New Yorker away from mass transit would be the May 3rd). When I was in art school in cover reprint. wrong approach. Instead, New York New York City, I was told by a female newyorkerstore.com/covers should take advantage of its late entry faculty member—who had the best in- on the scooter scene by adopting best tentions—that the secret to having a practices its peers have learned: require career as a female artist was not to have docking devices to avoid sidewalk clut- kids. It was routine among the child- ter; remove at least one car-parking less artists I looked up to at the time PRICE $8.99 OCT. 24, 2016 spot on each block, to provide bike and to refer pejoratively to younger artists scooter areas; and move forward with who decided to have children as “breed- the creation of bike lanes, which make ers.” Als has graciously set an example riding less perilous and therefore more by exploring the rich and complex iden- accessible to people diverse in age, gen- tity of an artist who is also a mother; der, and ethnicity. we all deserve an art world that cele- Marcel Moran brates such work. Dept. of City and Regional Planning Emily Davis Adams Ph.D. candidate, U.C. Berkeley 1El Cerrito, Calif. San Francisco, Calif. WHAT’S FOR DINNER? Seabrook’s piece on e-scooters raised my blood pressure. I am a third- Thanks to Roz Chast for the delight- generation New Yorker, which surely ful Sketchpad about the many terms entitles me to kvetch about the city’s people use for making a meal out changing modes of transportation. of odds and ends around the kitchen When I have visited friends and (The Talk of the Town, April 26th & family in San Francisco, Paris, and May 3rd). In Chast’s household, it’s Copenhagen, I have run into, tripped called “fending”; in ours, it’s “spinmas- over, swerved around, and generally tering”—spinning whatever is in the been harassed by e-scooters. When the refrigerator into a new and totally dif- 6 train runs late or breaks down, it’s an ferent take on what it was. In other inconvenience but not a hazard. I am words, the art of re-creation. not a Luddite, and I have faith that John Paoli micro-mobility in the form of scoot- Missoula, Mont. ers can help to solve the “last-mile problem”; the prospect of reducing • vehicle-miles travelled and carbon Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, emissions is genuinely exciting. But address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited New York is not Silicon Valley—our for length and clarity, and may be published in ethos is not “Move fast and break any medium. We regret that owing to the volume things.” Broken things piss us off, and of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. THE NEW YORKER, MAY 24, 2021 5 In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many New York City venues are closed. Here’s a selection of culture to be found around town, as well as online and streaming; as ever, it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements.