The Curtain Rises on Trump’s Legal Dramas

Plus: the path forward for Haiti; why progressives shouldn’t give up on meritocracy; and “Inside,” reviewed. View in browser | Update your preferences Saturday, March 18, 2023 Daily Comment The Curtain Rises on Trump’s Legal Dramas Trump is shrewd enough to reap political gain if he is indicted this week. But his strategy of playing the martyr may have run its course. By David Remnick From the News Desk Annals of Inquiry What’s the Path Forward for Haiti? As the international community contemplates another armed intervention, a reckoning with history is long overdue. By Marlene L. Daut Our Columnists Why Progressives Shouldn’t Give Up on Meritocracy It seems like meritocracy could go the way of free speech, as a bedrock principle that the left allows the right to claim as its own. By Jay Caspian Kang The New Yorker Radio Hour What if the Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action? The conservative majority may strike down consideration of race in school admissions. What will that mean for colleges? Plus, how the culture wars came to the Catholic Church. With David Remnick Editor’s Picks Photo Booth Tina Barney’s Searching Early Work A new exhibition and book, titled “The Beginning,” shows the photographer casting about for a method that could honestly capture her upper-crust milieu. By Vince Aletti The Boards When Skinheads Picket Your Broadway Show Ben Platt, the Tony-winning star of “Dear Evan Hansen” and, now, “Parade,” discusses some links to the character he plays, and discovering that he’s Josh Groban’s cousin. By Zach Helfand Books We Recommend This Week Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction. The Great Displacement, by Jake Bittle (Simon & Schuster). Roving across the United States, this survey explores the precarious environments in which many Americans now live, places irreversibly altered by floods, fires, hurricanes, and drought. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Half Known Life, by Pico Iyer (Riverhead). This travelogue examines spiritual customs from around the world, meditating on the idea of paradise. Iyer visits the mosques of Iran, the insular streets of North Korea, the mountains of Japan, Aboriginal Australia, and Belfast (the “spiritual home of civil war”). Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Big Swiss, by Jen Beagin (Scribner). Greta, the aimless protagonist of this darkly comic novel, works as a transcriptionist for a sex-and-relationship coach—“Greta liked knowing people’s secrets”—and quickly becomes obsessed with one of her employer’s clients, whom she nicknames Big Swiss. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Age of Vice, by Deepti Kapoor (Riverhead). The body count in this baroque tale of avarice and corruption in contemporary India is high: five migrants are dead by the end of the first sentence. The novel moves from the slums of New Delhi to its most exclusive enclaves, from rural Uttar Pradesh to London, following the lives of three people. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The best books of 2023 so far What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. Culture Dept. Fiction “False Star” “As far back as I could remember, I had heard discussion of claim checks.” By Sterling HolyWhiteMountain This Week in Fiction Sterling HolyWhiteMountain on First Cars The author discusses “False Star,” his story from the latest issue of the magazine. By Willing Davidson The Current Cinema The Thief as Artist in “Inside” Starring Willem Dafoe as a stranded art thief, Vasilis Katsoupis’s film pushes the heist genre in the direction of performance art. By Anthony Lane Sketchbook Persia on the Periphery: Iran, Imagined A cartoonist’s view of his parental homeland, gleaned from secondary and secondhand sources. By Navied Mahdavian Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play the Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger Daily Shouts Foods and Their Corresponding Feelings Messy tacos, microwaved leftovers with a surprise cold spot, and other sensorially resonant comestibles. By Ivy Johnson Shouts & Murmurs How to Tell if You’re in a TV Show A rousing, emotional speech often changes minds on television. In real life, not so much. By Emma Rathbone Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.