AUGUST 28, 2017 5 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 27 THE TALK OF THE TOWN David Remnick on Trump and the far right; eclipse addicts; the arrests of James Cromwell; the Patreon wars; the comedians’ table. PERSONAL HISTORY Ian Frazier 34 Drive Time The unexpected joys of New York by car. SHOUTS & MURMURS Jen Spyra 41 Family-Vacation Breakdown MODERN TIMES Elizabeth Kolbert 42 The Content of No Content Are the tech giants eroding democracy? A REPORTER AT LARGE Patrick Radden Keefe 46 Trump’s Favorite Tycoon Carl Icahn’s influence with the President. PROFILES Nick Paumgarten 60 Singer of Secrets What St. Vincent reveals and what she hides. FICTION Lauren Groff 68 “Dogs Go Wolf ” THE CRITICS A CRITIC AT LARGE Louis Menand 75 A new salvo from Freud’s most implacable critic. BOOKS James Wood 83 The stories of Gunnhild Øyehaug. 85 Briefly Noted THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 86 “Logan Lucky,” “Marjorie Prime.” POEMS Craig Morgan Teicher 56 “Son” Rae Armantrout 72 “Project” COVER David Plunkert “Blowhard” DRAWINGS David Borchart, Will McPhail, Roz Chast, Liam Francis Walsh, Edward Steed, Maddie Dai, Julia Suits, David Sipress, P. C. Vey, Harry Bliss, Barbara Smaller, Carolita Johnson, Joe Dator SPOTS Anthony Russo CONTRIBUTORS Patrick Radden Keefe (“Trump’s Favor- Elizabeth Kolbert (“The Content of No ite Tycoon,” p. 46), a staff writer, is an Content,” p. 42) is a staff writer and the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at author of “The Sixth Extinction: An New America and the author of “Chat- Unnatural History,” which won a Pu- ter” and “The Snakehead.” litzer Prize for nonfiction in 2015. Lauren Groff (Fiction, p. 68) is the au- Nick Paumgarten (“Singer of Secrets,” thor of, most recently, the novel “Fates p. 60) has been writing for the maga- and Furies.” Her short-story collection zine since 2000. “Florida” will come out next summer. Michael Schulman (The Talk of the Town, Ian Frazier (“Drive Time,” p. 34) pub- p. 30), a contributor since 2006, is the lished “Hogs Wild: Selected Report- author of “Her Again: Becoming Meryl ing Pieces” last year and is working on Streep.” a book about the Bronx. Rae Armantrout (Poem, p. 72) has pub- Jen Spyra (Shouts & Murmurs, p. 41), a lished, most recently, “Partly: New and former senior writer for the Onion, is Selected Poems” and “Entanglements,” a staff writer for “The Late Show with a chapbook of poems in conversation Stephen Colbert.” with physics. James Wood (Books, p. 83) teaches at Louis Menand (A Critic at Large, p. 75) Harvard University. “The Nearest Thing has been a staff writer since 2001. Last to Life” is his latest book. year, he was awarded the National Hu- manities Medal by President Obama. Craig Morgan Teicher (Poem, p. 56) is the author of the poetry collection “The David Plunkert (Cover) is an illustrator Trembling Answers,” which came out and graphic designer. This is his first this year. cover for The New Yorker. NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more. DAILY SHOUTS PODCAST Miss Lasko-Gross illustrates a On this week’s episode, Lauren Groff scavenger hunt of things to see in reads “Dogs Go Wolf,” her short New York City this summer. story from the issue. 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.) 2 THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 28, 2017 THE MAIL WHEN TO REMOVE A CHILD dren safely with parents. Often, the chil- dren were never even separated from par- Larissa MacFarquhar’s article shines a ents or were returned to them after only light on the tragedy of children in the a brief period. In those instances, the foster-care system by giving a voice to caseworker provided close supervision, mothers, caseworkers, judges, and attor- personally checking on the families neys (“The Separation,” August 7th & several times a week and giving the 14th). But what about the voice of the court frequent updates. Confidentiality children? Although preserving families laws don’t allow caseworkers to speak is a noble goal, and reunification should about their cases; however, I wish Mac- be a top priority for social workers, ad- Farquhar—who captured the unique vocates, and courts, it is not always in challenges inherent in dependency cases— the best interest of the child. Parents in had done more to give them a voice. the court system, who are often victims Cynthia G. Inda of abuse and neglect themselves, may be Irvine, Calif. unable to provide even a minimal level of safety for their children. Children may I worked as a hearing officer and then be abused or neglected. Families may as an attorney/guardian ad litem repre- have food insecurity, and no access to senting children for twenty-five years. adequate health care or to safe and sta- MacFarquhar’s sympathy for Mercedes ble housing, and a child without those led her to depict the child-welfare sys- necessities is likely to form psychologi- tem as routinely removing children from cal and physical scars that can last a life- their parents without justification. In fact, time. The services offered to parents in there is significant pressure on agencies support of reunification are often inad- to keep the number of foster-care place- equate or ineffective. Some parents are ments low. Children can sustain years of able to make slow progress, but a few neglect and abuse before an agency pe- years in the life of a child is an eternity. titions for court intervention. One need The heartbreaking truth is that termi- look no further than Mercedes’s story nation of parental rights is sometimes in for an example of the lifelong repercus- the best interest of the child. sions of exposing children to neglect Jean Domanico rather than removing them from the Durham, N.C. home. Brought up in a violent environ- ment, Mercedes ended up homeless, preg- MacFarquhar’s article seems to portray nant at fourteen, and the victim of se- caseworkers as setting unrealistic stan- vere physical abuse by boyfriends—as dards for parenting. When I was an at- well as by her father—all of which lim- torney representing caseworkers in Cali - ited her opportunities and perpetuated fornia dependency courts, I was consis- the cycle. MacFarquhar sees a system tently impressed by their commitment that’s rigged against parents. Rather, it to helping parents reunite with their chil- is a system that, day in and day out, be- dren. It was the caseworkers who thought lieves parents’ denials and excuses, spends up the services, such as parenting classes, taxpayer dollars to provide services for counselling, and anger-management problems that are largely intractable, and groups, that were designed to help par- fails to protect children. ents address their issues and get their Cathy Badal children back. They arranged for the Reading, Pa. children’s counselling, medical services, and educational support; drove them • to and from school when no one else Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, would; and lined up placements with address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited family members, using foster care only for length and clarity, and may be published in as a last resort. Whenever possible, they any medium. We regret that owing to the volume used any reasonable means to leave chil- of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 28, 2017 3 AUGUST 23 Ð 29, 2017 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN Beautiful natural vistas, drama, and history come together at Boscobel House and Gardens, home of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, about ninety minutes north of the city. Exciting unplanned confluences, such as a convoy of helicopters flying over “Macbeth,” occur regularly. “A Week of Revolution” (Aug. 27-Sept. 4) will include reënactments, picnics, hikes, and a staging of Richard Nelson’s play “The General from America,” about Benedict Arnold, who tried to hand his command of West Point—visible across the river—over to the British. PHOTOGRAPH BY CAIT OPPERMANN 1 OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS On the Shore of the Wide World THE THEATRE This new play by Simon Stephens (“Heisenberg”), directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Blair Brown, follows a family in Stockport, England, over nine eventful months. (Atlantic Theatre Company, 336 W. 20th St. 866-811-4111. In previews.) Prince of Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club stages a musical celebration of the Broadway director-producer Harold Prince, whose six-decade career includes “Cabaret,” “Com- pany,” “Evita,” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” Prince directs, with co-direction and choreography by Susan Stroman; the cast features Karen Ziemba, Chuck Coo- per, and Emily Skinner. (Samuel J. Friedman, 261 W. 47th St. 212-239-6200. In previews. Opens Aug. 24.) The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias Michael Yates Crowley’s dark comedy, directed by Tyne Rafaeli for the Playwrights Realm, is about a young sexual-assault survivor navigating lawyers, guidance counsellors, and Wikipedia. (The Duke “The Band’s Visit” follows an Egyptian police orchestra stranded overnight in the Negev Desert. on 42nd Street, 229 W. 42nd St. 646-223-3010. Pre- views begin Aug. 25.) Booth). The Pulitzer-winning playwright The Red Letter Plays: Fucking A & In the Blood Fall Preview Ayad Akhtar (“Disgraced”) tackles the Suzan-Lori Parks modernizes “The Scarlet Letter” in two plays. “Fucking A,” directed by Jo Bonney, re- Musicals, like ocean liners, are built for “greed is good” era in “Junk,” with Steven casts Hawthorne’s heroine as an abortionist trying bigness, but some of the best works of Pasquale as an investment banker at- to free her son from jail.