PRICE $8.99 OCT. 30, 2017 OCTOBER 30, 2017 4 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 15 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Jia Tolentino on powerful men behaving badly; a cartoon Weinstein; the would-be kleptocrat’s app; Bill Murray’s classical turn; Andy Serkis spotted. OUR LOCAL CORRESPONDENTS Jiayang Fan 20 The Ghost Scam A confidence trick on Chinatown’s elderly. SHOUTS & MURMURS Broti Broti Gupta Gupta and and Rebecca Rebecca Caplan Caplan 27 Trump I.Q. Test ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH THE ARTS Peter Schjeldahl 28 Think Big Laura Owens’s new perspective on painting. A REPORTER AT LARGE Patrick Radden Keefe 34 Empire of Pain The philanthropic family that profited from OxyContin. PORTFOLIO Philip Montgomery 50 Faces of an Epidemic with Margaret Talbot Images of the lives overtaken by the opioid crisis. FICTION Joseph O’Neill 60 “The Sinking of the Houston” THE CRITICS THE THEATRE Hilton Als 65 “Springsteen on Broadway.” A CRITIC AT LARGE Joan Acocella 67 Martin Luther’s theses at five hundred. BOOKS 70 Briefly Noted MUSICAL EVENTS Alex Ross 74 The unearthly sounds of Ashley Fure. ON TELEVISION Amanda Petrusich 76 Viceland’s foodies with attitude. THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 78 “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” “The Square.” POEMS Sophie Klahr 31 “From ‘Like Nebraska’ ” Nick Laird 44 “La Méditerranée” COVER Carter Goodrich “October Surprise” DRAWINGS Zachary Kanin, Roz Chast, Amy Hwang, Will McPhail, William Haefeli, Julia Suits, Joe Dator, Seth Fleishman, Drew Panckeri, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Liana Finck, Paul Noth SPOTS Jeffrey Fisher CONTRIBUTORS Jiayang Fan (“The Ghost Scam,” p. 20) Peter Schjeldahl (“Think Big” p. 28), the became a staff writer in 2016. Her re- magazine’s art critic, is the author of porting on China, American politics, “Let’s See: Writings on Art from The and culture has appeared in the mag- New Yorker.” azine and on newyorker.com since 2010. Rebecca Caplan (Shouts & Murmurs, Broti Gupta (Shouts & Murmurs, p. 27) p. 27) is a writer at CollegeHumor and has written for the Times, the Wash- has contributed to newyorker.com ington Post online, and newyorker.com. since 2015. Joseph O’Neill (Fiction, p. 60) will pub- Patrick Radden Keefe (“Empire of Pain,” lish the story collection “Good Trou- p. 34) is a staff writer. ble” in June. Joan Acocella (A Critic at Large, p. 67) Amanda Petrusich (On Television, p. 76), a has written for The New Yorker, mostly staff writer, is the author of “Do Not Sell on books and dance, since 1992, and at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt became the magazine’s dance critic in for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records.” 1998. Her most recent book is “Twenty- eight Artists and Two Saints,” a col- Carter Goodrich (Cover) is a writer, an lection of essays. illustrator, and a character designer for feature animation. He is at work on his Philip Montgomery (Portfolio, p. 50), a pho- seventh children’s book, “Nobody Hugs tographer, has been a regular contributor a Cactus.” since 2015, and covered the 2016 U.S. Pres- idential election for the magazine. Jia Tolentino (Comment, p. 15) is a staff writer. Previously, she was the deputy Sophie Klahr (Poem, p. 31) is the author editor at Jezebel and a contributing ed- of the poetry collection “Meet Me Here itor at the Hairpin. at Dawn.” NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more. DAILY SHOUTS VIDEO A guide to dressing up as your The photographer Philip Montgomery favorite member of the Trump on covering the opioid epidemic in Administration for Halloween. Montgomery County, Ohio. 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.) MAP) (NEEDLE, ALAMY SOURCE: COUCEIRO; CRISTIANA BY ILLUSTRATION RIGHT: 2 THE NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 30, 2017 THE MAIL BEYOND THE BOUNDS We talk about assault as if it were a new phenomenon, as if it weren’t I’ve been sad for days since reading the people in positions of authority Ronan Farrow’s story on Harvey who are so often responsible: lawyers, Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse judges, priests, teachers, police officers, and assault (“Abuses of Power,” Oc- doctors, C.E.O.s. Why do we act so tober 23rd). My eighty-six-year-old shocked? The subject of sexual abuse mother has always said that every is treated like global warming—we woman is forced to prostitute her- think that if we pretend it’s not hap- self at some time in her life, and hear- pening, then maybe it will go away. ing that never fails to make me sick. Natarsha Douglas And yet I know of so many women Toronto, Ont. who have had bad experiences with people they work with, including Sexual harassment and assault is an myself and my daughter. I never told issue that crosses all boundaries, po- anyone what happened to me, but litical or otherwise. It’s about preda- when women like the ones in Far- tors in power who know that they are row’s article tell their stories it helps untouchable, and the people who en- everyone to speak up, especially those able them. My experience of sexual with lower incomes, who can’t risk harassment, like that of so many other losing their jobs because of a boss women, ranges from mild to extreme. who tries to force sex on them. When I worked in industrial- chemical Connie Sundquist sales, in the nineteen-eighties, a se- Tallahassee, Fla. nior person at my company started pursuing me. He harassed and as- He was influential and well loved, a saulted me, and on a work trip one church elder. He was seen as smart, night he even got the key to my hotel disciplined, and generous. He started room without my permission. This grooming me when I was eight years behavior continued after I reported old. He raped me for the first time him, and I believe I was not the only when I was ten, and every weekend woman subjected to his unwanted for four years. I saw how easy it was advances. When I refused to have an for him to hide what he was doing, affair with him, he berated me and and it later became clear that he had claimed that my work was suffering. help. That’s what makes the Harvey I was assigned to a new sales terri- Weinstein sexual-assault allegations tory, in an area known for its gang so horrible: it wasn’t a secret. People violence. He was willing to put my knew that Weinstein was dangerous, life in danger as punishment. I re- but they turned away—they allowed member standing in a bathroom at it. My abuser was raping women be- the restaurant where he first made a fore I was born. People knew and did pass at me, looking at myself in the nothing to protect the victims. When mirror and trying to figure out how he got to me, no one believed he to rebuff this person without losing would “go that young.” I was called the job I loved. In the end I couldn’t. a liar. I was told that it was my fault, After months of abuse, I quit. because I should have said something Lesley Barton sooner. I was called crazy. Punta Gorda, Fla. These are the reasons we don’t speak. When we finally do, we get asked, • “Why now?” As if there’s a time limit Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to on trauma. I’m forty-four years old, [email protected]. Letters may be edited and therapy didn’t prepare me for what for length and clarity, and may be published in raising a daughter would trigger. Her any medium. We regret that owing to the volume tenth birthday was two weeks ago. of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. THE NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 30, 2017 3 OCTOBER 25 – 31, 2017 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN Metropolitan Opera audiences know the British composer Thomas Adès for “The Tempest,” a svelte Shake- speare adaptation that opened here in 2012. But in his acclaimed new opera, “The Exterminating Angel” (which premières on Oct. 26), inspired by the scabrous film by Luis Buñuel, he returns to the territory he marked out in his first opera, “Powder Her Face”: skewering the sexual and political assumptions of the upper class. The baritone David Adam Moore and the soprano Amanda Echalaz, above, are featured in the cast. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDRES SERRANO tracked with fresh music. The program, directed by Michael Counts, incorporates scenic and pro- duction design by Deborah Johnson (who works CLASSICAL MUSIC under the name CandyStations). Oct. 27-28 at 7:30. (BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette 1 Ave., Brooklyn. bam.org.) composer-conductor. The first of three consecutive OPERA subscription programs brings Alan Gilbert, until Daniil Trifonov recently the Philharmonic’s music director, to- This thrilling but thoughtful Russian pianist is Metropolitan Opera gether with the violinist Joshua Bell and the mezzo- boldly marking his own path within largely tra- There is a coterie of contemporary composers—in- soprano Kelley O’Connor, in a celebration of two ditional guidelines. His upcoming Carnegie Hall cluding John Adams and Philip Glass—who can say Leonard Bernstein masterworks, the “Serenade” program, “Hommage à Chopin,” expands the usual that the Met has performed more than one of their and the Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah”; “Boundless,” repertory choices (including the Franco-Polish operas; their number now includes Thomas Adès.