Special Report: How Eric Adams Started Mentoring a Con Man

Plus: Todd Field’s long road to “Tár”; Kathy Hochul’s ambitious climate plan for New York; and remembering Charles Simic. View in browser | Update your preferences Saturday, January 14, 2023 Our Local Correspondents How Eric Adams Started Mentoring a Con Man Why did New York’s mayor take Lamor Whitehead, a fraudster Brooklyn church leader, under his wing? By Eric Lach From the News Desk Daily Comment What to Do When It Rains on the Winter Games Governor Kathy Hochul’s ambitious climate plan for New York. By Bill McKibben Q. & A. The Origins of Joe Biden’s Document Mess At the end of his Vice-Presidency, all official documents should have been transferred to the National Archives. How did some end up elsewhere? By Isaac Chotiner Editor’s Pick Notes on Hollywood Todd Field’s Long Road to “Tár” The writer-director returns to the big screen after a sixteen-year absence. Plus: how Lydia Tár (maybe) earned her EGOT. By Michael Schulman Books We Recommend This Week Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction. Wade in the Water, by Nyani Nkrumah (Amistad). Set in 1982, this immersive début novel is narrated largely by an adolescent girl who lives in an all-Black neighborhood in the fictional town of Ricksville, Mississippi. After a white graduate student moves there to conduct research for a thesis on Black migration and the civil-rights movement, the two begin a cautious friendship. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler (MCD x FSG). In the near future, at a touristy dive spot off the coast of Con Dao, in Vietnam, a species of extra-intelligent octopuses captures a young diver. The event piques the interest of an ambitious researcher, and soon it becomes clear that the cephalopods, who have a culture and a language of their own, are a violent spawn of the Anthropocene. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Slouching Towards Utopia, by J. Bradford DeLong (Basic). This economic history takes up the period from 1870 to 2010—what its author calls the “long twentieth century”—and examines why, despite the vast wealth generated during that time, problems such as climate change and inequality persist. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Sybil & Cyril, by Jenny Uglow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). This joint biography of the modernist linocut artists Sybil Andrews and Cyril Power is a riveting tale of art and love between the wars. The two first met in Suffolk, England, around 1919, when he was a married father of four and she was an aspiring watercolorist. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Read more recommendations What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. Culture Dept. Page-Turner Charles Simic in The New Yorker The poet, who contributed to the magazine for half a century, wrote surreal, philosophical verse marked by a profound sense of joy. By Hannah Aizenman Tables for Two SYKO’s Syrian and Korean Cuisines, Side by Side In Windsor Terrace, the members of a blended family present dishes from both cultures, offering bulgogi as well as shawarma, along with the glorious Fatboy sandwich. By Hannah Goldfield Fiction “Hammer Attack” “If COVID had been a giant upender of life’s order, this new regime of fear was even more despotic.” By Han Ong This Week in Fiction Han Ong on Fiction and the News The author discusses “Hammer Attack,” his story from the latest issue of the magazine. By Deborah Treisman Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play the Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger Daily Shouts Netflix’s (Less Popular) Shows About Ex-Royals An eternity of hanging around with the pharaoh and fending off grave robbers got old for this prince and princess. By Adam Douglas Thompson Shouts & Murmurs Field Notes on the Infinite-Monkey Theorem If you put monkeys in a room with typewriters, do you get Shakespeare? Or do they just drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and listen to old jazz LPs? By Reuven Perlman 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.