cultural commentary from the desk of Don Shewey
The highlights of the issue are:
* “The Big Sleep,” Ian Parker’s long article about the workings of sleep medications, in particular Ambien;
* Rivka Galchen’s short story “The Late Novels of Gene Hackman”;
* Hilton Als’s review of the Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot, which has fresh things to say about Beckett and the play, while confirming my suspicions about the performances of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen;
and an unusually good crop of cartoons:
The best reading is “Every Disease on Earth,” Rivka Galchen’s piece on Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, which apparently serves the most ethnically diverse population of any in the world, and Dr. Joseph Lieber (below, photo by Stephanie Sinclair), a dedicated resident and ace diagnostician.
Also of interest: Ryan Lizza’s profile of Colorado’s governor, John Hickenlooper, and the state’s political shift in recent years over issues of guns, gay marriage, and marijuana; Dexter Filkins’ “The Thin Red Line,” about the Obama Administration’s internal debate over what to do about Syria; Joan Acocella writing amusingly, as ever, about the new burlesque scene in downtown Manhattan (“Take It Off”); and Kelefa Sanneh’s Critic at Large essay on anarchism, reviewing a number of books inspired by the Occupy movement and explicating the crucial distinctions between vertical and horizontal movements.
Two strong reporting pieces anchor this week’s New Yorker: James B. Stewart’s pitilessly detailed explanation (“Tax Me If You Can”) of how super-wealthy New Yorkers try to get out of paying NYC residential taxes and Francisco Goldman’s absorbing story, “Children of the Dirty War,” about the ardent and unflagging efforts of the mothers and grandmothers of Argentina’s “disappeared” population murdered by the military junta between 1976 to 1983. Goldman’s story focuses on how babies born to mothers who were then “disappeared” were given to childless couples in the military and political elite, and how the advent of DNA testing has allowed the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo to reunite those children with what remains of their birth families. In particular, Goldman zeroes in on two (now-grown) children adopted by the head of Argentina’s Clarin media empire, who have become their own surreal tabloid story.
I also enjoyed David Owen’s essay on scars, which matches my own pervy appreciation of scars, my own and others, because of the extremely individual personal history they tell, written on the body. Rivka Galchen’s short story “Appreciation” also hilariously captures the contemporary New York (American?) fixation on money, income, and tax bracket.
Plus, you know, a terrific cartoon by Joe Dator:
another eye opens 