The Magazine
The Fiction Issue
June 5 & 12, 2017
Goings On
Bar Tab
Grand Army’s “Gilmore Girls” Cocktails
As part of a seasonal menu, the exceptionally pleasant bar will be serving drinks that include the Late Night at Luke’s and the Hep Alien.
Goings On About Town
“Angels in America,” the Opera
The European master Peter Eötvös’s adaptation of Tony Kushner’s play gets its New York première, at New York City Opera.
Night Life
Mount Kimbie’s Electric Touch
The British production duo makes agile, quiet dance tracks—and helped inspire a new strain of electronic music.
Tables for Two
Enrique Olvera Goes Casual with Atla
After earning a reputation as an innovator at Pujol and Cosme, the chef has opened a café that serves both Arctic-char tostadas and avocado toast.
Movies
Joan Crawford’s Explosive Offscreen Life
“Mommie Dearest,” the story of the actress’s relationship with her daughter, is one of the best films about a Hollywood star that the industry has produced.
The Talk of the Town
The Pictures
Danny McBride’s Horror Show
The actor, who is in Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant,” evaluates the scare tactics of the Jekyll & Hyde Club.
Diaspora Dept.
Competing to Be Mrs. Philippines-USA
Contestants in the beauty pageant for currently or formerly married women compare Rodrigo Duterte with Donald Trump.
The Financial Page
Is Socially Responsible Capitalism Losing?
When companies prize investors above all, they’ll do anything to increase their stock price, and that’s not good for workers.
Dept. of Beautification
Thousand-Pound Bronzes on the Upper West Side
Until November, Joy Brown’s enormous sculptures will be encamped at intervals on the medians of Broadway.
Comment
The World That Trump and Ailes Built
The measure of their influence lies in the distance between today’s media and politics and those of the years they were born.
Reporting & Essays
A Reporter at Large
The Addicts Next Door
West Virginia has the highest overdose death rate in the country. Locals are fighting to save their neighbors—and their towns—from destruction.
Life and Letters
I Have Fallen in Love with American Names
On the Job
On the Job
The Work You Do, the Person You Are
The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed.
On the Job
Brush Clearing with Teen-Age Boys in Arkansas
I was management—tasked and poorly paid to get down among ’em and impart the skills of swing-blade, of scythe, of axe and hatchet.
On the Job
Business or Pleasure
On the Job
The Countess’s Private Secretary
Although she told me often how much she liked and admired me, I was unmistakably a servant.
On the Job
The Hardworking Immigrant Who Made Good
After a few interviews in which I saw my interlocutor flick his eyes over my résumé and register that I had no relevant experience, I decided to start lying.
Fiction
The Critics
A Critic at Large
W. G. Sebald, Humorist
He’s revered for his moral gravity, but his greatness comes from a surprising alloy.
Books
Arundhati Roy Returns to Fiction, in Fury
After twenty years of activism, the author of “The God of Small Things” delivers a scarring novel of India’s modern history.
On Television
The Apocalypse According to “The Leftovers”
The HBO show portrays intimate grief lit by the flare of worldwide cataclysm. It’s about the end of the world, taken personally.
Books
Briefly Noted
“The Trouble with Reality,” “Slight Exaggeration,” “The Impossible Fairy Tale,” and “There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé.”
The Current Cinema
“Baywatch” and “Letters from Baghdad”
An adaptation of the iconic television series, starring Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, and Kelly Rohrbach, and a documentary about Gertrude Bell.
Poems
Cartoons
1/16
“And then I thought, Why not live a little?”
Cartoon Caption Contest
The Mail
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