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Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review — June 11, 2023

June 9, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW – JUNE 11, 2023: This week’s issue brims with even more books to add to your teetering nightstand pile: talky new novels by Brandon Taylor, R.F. Kuang and Luis Alberto Urrea; a wistful ode to a beloved neighborhood bar; the latest crime fiction; even some Martin Amis titles you’ve always meant to pick up, plucked from A.O. Scott’s beautiful appraisal of the late British writer.

Good Night, Sweet Prince

This black-and-white photograph is a close-up of the writer Martin Amis’s face. He is staring intently into the camera.

Our critic assesses the achievement of Martin Amis, Britain’s most famous literary son.

By A.O. Scott

On May 6, at the age of 74, Charles III was crowned king of England. A few weeks later, at 73, Martin Amis died at his home in Florida. One event seemed almost comically belated, the other tragically premature. Charles took over the family business well past normal retirement age, while Amis was denied the illustrious dotage that great writers deserve.

For ‘The Late Americans,’ Grad School Life Equals Envy, Sex and Ennui

The book jacket for “The Late Americans,” by Brandon Taylor, is an abstract illustration of two men’s faces; one man is kissing the chin of the other.

Brandon Taylor’s novel circulates among Iowa City residents, some privileged, some not, but all aware that their possibilities are contracting.

By Alexandra Jacobs

Reading Brandon Taylor’s new novel, “The Late Americans,” I thought more than once of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award that the English magazine Literary Review gave to decades of authors, many esteemed, before showing mercy in pandemic-chilled 2020. Not because the sex in Taylor’s novel is described badly, but because — described well! — so much of it is bad.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

Preview: New York Times Magazine – June 11, 2023

June 9, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (June 09, 2023) – Inside the $4-billion credit repair industry. Plus, the mycologist who wants us to learn about the magic of mushrooms and the cringe comedian perfect for this moment.

The High Cost of Bad Credit

Taqwanna Clark standing in an office in a blue suit. "Credit Life Inc" is on the wall behind Clark. — Taqwanna Clark, a credit-repair agent in Houston and the founder of Credit Lift Inc.Credit…Eli Durst for The New York Times

Desperate to improve their ratings, Americans now spend billions on “credit repair” — but the industry often can’t deliver on its promises.

By Mya Frazier

When Taqwanna Clark went to buy a video camera at Fry’s Electronics in Houston, she asked if they had a layaway plan. The cashier instead handed her an application for a store credit card. She applied. “Instantly, it came back declined — like, No!” she says. “Denied, denied — you know, your credit is not good enough.” Clark was 30 and working as a security guard at the Port of Houston. On weekends, she performed as a rapper in the local club scene, under the name T-Baby. She wanted the camera to shoot music videos, to promote her music career. “If I can’t afford a $200 camera,” she recalls thinking, “then I’m in a bad way with this credit thing.”

The Man Who Turned the World on to the Genius of Fungi

A close-up photograph of Merlin Sheldrake. — Merlin Sheldrake, author of the best-selling book “Entangled Life.”

A vast fungal web braids together life on Earth. Merlin Sheldrake wants to help us see it.

By Jennifer Kahn

One evening last winter, Merlin Sheldrake, the mycologist and author of the best-selling book “Entangled Life,” was headlining an event in London’s Soho. The night was billed as a “salon,” and the crowd, which included the novelist Edward St. Aubyn, was elegant and arty, with lots of leggy women in black tights and men in perfectly draped camel’s-hair coats. “Entangled Life” is a scientific study of all things fungal that reads like a fairy tale, and since the book’s publication in 2020, Sheldrake has become a coveted speaker.

Tim Robinson and the Golden Age of Cringe Comedy

A photo illustration of Tim Robinson’s face stretched lengthwise in a collage. — Credit…Photo illustration by Lola Dupre

His sketch show, “I Think You Should Leave,” zeroes in on the panic-inducing feelings of living in a society where we can’t agree on the rules.

By Sam Anderson

Tim Robinson loves spicy food.

This minor fact is one of the major things I learned at my very awkward dinner interview with Robinson and Zach Kanin, creators of the cult Netflix comedy series “I Think You Should Leave.” Robinson ordered drunken spaghetti with tofu — spicy — and, almost immediately, the spaghetti started to make his voice hoarse. He insisted, however, that this had nothing to do with the spice — in fact, he said, his food wasn’t spicy enough. I asked our server if she could go spicier. She brought out a whole dish of special chiles. Robinson spooned them enthusiastically over his noodles.

Culture, Tourism, Travel, Views

Travel: The ‘Chic Magic’ Of The Island Of Ischia, Italy

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From a rooftop you look over a village, with a strip of sand with a beach on one side and a harbor on the other, leading to a small rock island.

The New York Times Travel (June 9, 2023) – The Italian island, long in the shadow of its fashionable neighbor, Capri, is newly chic, but remains deeply authentic, with rocky harbors more likely to dock fishing boats than megayachts.

This Is Ischia’s Moment in the Sun

By Ondine Cohane

A red-walled building with white crenellation and black shutters on the windows stands on a cliff above the sea. — The Hotel Mezzatorre is perched on a finger of land with a view onto the bay of Naples and the beach of San Montano below.

Ischia is one of a trio of islands (known as the Phlegraeans) off Naples that also includes Capri and Procida. Capri’s size and popularity with day trippers means it can easily feel overrun and overexposed. Procida is the smallest of the three and has never gotten the attention of its siblings (although it too is worth a visit for its pastel villages and artisan workshops).

A face in a stone wall spouts water from its mouth into a pond with lily pads surrounded by vegetation. — La Mortella gardens in Forio were created by the renowned garden designer Russell Page.

Ischia’s magic is that it’s suspended between the newly chic — with the recent overhaul of the Mezzatorre Hotel by the hotelier Marie-Louise Sció, who brought a crowd that had never heard of the island but were fans of her über-photogenic hotels — and the authentic. There are simple bars, beach clubs and harbors more likely to dock fishing boats than megayachts. With a surface area of almost 18 square miles, the island is home to a number of charming villages to explore like Forio, Ischia Ponte, Sant’Angelo and Casamicciola, among others. Add in natural thermal spas, lush vineyards and deserted coves, and it’s easy to see why Ischia is quickly become one of Italy’s rising destinations.

News, Newspapers, Views

The New York Times – Friday, June 9, 2023

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Justice Department Charges Trump in Documents Case

The indictment followed criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump in a hush-money case brought by local prosecutors in New York.

The indictment, handed up by a grand jury in Miami, is the first time a former U.S. president has faced federal charges.

Indictment Brings Trump Story Full Circle

The indictment in the documents case is the second brought against former President Donald J. Trump, but in many ways it eclipses the first in both legal gravity and political peril.

The former president assailed Hillary Clinton for her handling of sensitive information. Now, the same issue threatens his chances of reclaiming the presidency.

Voting Map That Diluted Black Voters’ Power

Voting rights advocates had feared that the decision about redistricting in Alabama would further undermine the Voting Rights Act, which instead appeared to emerge unscathed.

Record Pollution and Heat Herald a Season of Climate Extremes

Scientists have long warned that global warming will increase the chance of severe wildfires like those burning across Canada and heat waves like the one smothering Puerto Rico.

News, Newspapers, Views

The New York Times – Thursday, June 8, 2023

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Prosecutors Tell Trump’s Legal Team He Is a Target of Investigation

A top adviser at the super PAC supporting former President Donald J. Trump’s candidacy appeared before a Florida grand jury on Wednesday.

The notice from the office of the special counsel Jack Smith suggested that an indictment was on the horizon in the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents.

Wildfires Spread Smoke, and Anxiety, Across Canada to the U.S.

An aircraft dropping a mixture of water and fire retardant over a wildfire in Barrington Lake, Nova Scotia, last week.

Massive plumes of smoke from hundreds of Canadian fires, enveloped millions in smoke, triggering dangerous air quality warnings in both countries and turning skies an ashen orange.

Chris Licht Is Out at CNN, Leaving Network at a Crossroads

Mr. Licht’s turbulent time running the 24-hour news organization lasted slightly more than a year.

With Migrant Flights, DeSantis Shows Stoking Outrage Is the Point

The flights to California illustrate the broader bet Gov. Ron DeSantis has made that the animating energy in the G.O.P. has shifted from conservatism to confrontationalism.

Climate Change, Environment, Nature, Reviews, Travel, Views

Environment: The Grand Canyon Is Losing Its River

June 7, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Long shadows are in the foreground of a view of the reddish canyon walls, which loom on either side and ahead. The sky is blue with ribbed white clouds.

The New York Times (June 6, 2023) – Down beneath the tourist lodges and shops selling keychains and incense, past windswept arroyos and brown valleys speckled with agave, juniper and sagebrush, the rocks of the Grand Canyon seem untethered from time. The oldest ones date back 1.8 billion years, not just eons before humans laid eyes on them, but eons before evolution endowed any organism on this planet with eyes.

The Grand Canyon, a Cathedral to Time, Is Losing Its River

Written and photographed by Raymond Zhong, who joined scientists on a 90-mile raft expedition through the canyon.

About half a dozen people with orange life jackets ride a blue raft on a murky, brownish and somewhat choppy Colorado River. Rust-colored canyon walls loom on either side and ahead of them. Three other rafts are in the distance.

Since 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam has been backing up the Colorado for nearly 200 miles, in the form of America’s second-largest reservoir, Lake Powell. Engineers constantly evaluate water and electricity needs to decide how much of the river to let through the dam’s works and out the other end, first into the Grand Canyon, then into Lake Mead and, eventually, into fields and homes in Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico.

Spend long enough in the canyon, and you might start feeling a little unmoored from time yourself.

A spring that looks like a narrow waterfall cascades out of a hole in a canyon wall down into a calm part of the Colorado River. The canyon walls are rust-red. — North Canyon, and a spring at Vasey’s Paradise.

The immense walls form a kind of cocoon, sealing you off from the modern world, with its cell signal and light pollution and disappointments. They draw your eyes relentlessly upward, as in a cathedral.

You might think you are seeing all the way to the top. But up and above are more walls, and above them even more, out of sight except for the occasional glimpse. For the canyon is not just deep. It is broad, too — 18 miles, rim to rim, at its widest. This is no mere cathedral of stone. It is a kingdom: sprawling, self-contained, an alternate reality existing magnificently outside of our own.

And yet, the Grand Canyon remains yoked to the present in one key respect. The Colorado River, whose wild energy incised the canyon over millions of years, is in crisis.

Read more

News, Newspapers, Views

The New York Times – Wednesday, June 7, 2023

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Destroyed Ukrainian Dam Floods War Zone and Forces Residents to Flee

The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region of Ukraine was breached early Tuesday.

Experts suspect an explosion collapsed the dam on the Dnipro River. Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other, and residents downstream were forced to evacuate to escape the cascading waves.

PGA Tour and LIV Golf Agree to Alliance, Ending Golf’s Bitter Fight

In a stunning announcement, the tour, along with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, said the rivals had agreed to create a “new, collectively owned, for-profit entity.”

Wildfire Smoke Blots Sun and Prompts Health Alerts in Much of U.S.

The smoke was pouring across the border from Canada, where hundreds of wildfires remain unchecked, and the hazardous smoke conditions are expected to linger through Wednesday and perhaps until later in the week.

Prince Harry, in Dramatic Testimony, Says Journalists Have ‘Blood on Their Hands’

In a remarkable court scene, the prince took the stand for five hours to make his case that his phone was hacked by a newspaper group, as a lawyer for the defense grilled him about his claims.

News, Newspapers, Views

The New York Times – Tuesday, June 6, 2023

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As Ukrainian Attacks Surge, U.S. Officials See Signs of Counteroffensive

Soldiers from Ukraine’s 95th Air Assault Brigade, with a lightweight British howitzer, targeted Russian positions in eastern Ukraine on Friday.

Kyiv has not formally announced the start of operations. But on Tuesday, Ukraine said the Russians had blown up a dam on the Dnipro River, potentially imperiling residents and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Biden Administration Shrugs Off Ukraine’s Attacks in Russia

Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbas region of Ukraine on Friday.

For months, U.S. officials said cross-border operations risked a dangerous escalation. But those fears have ebbed.

Schools Received Billions in Stimulus Funds. It May Not Be Doing Enough.

Pandemic aid was supposed to help students recover from learning loss, but results have been mixed.

S.E.C. Accuses Binance of Mishandling Funds and Lying to Regulators

The S.E.C. said the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange mixed billions of dollars in customer funds and secretly sent them to a separate company controlled by Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao.

Adventure, Travel, Videos, Views

Travel: A Tour Of ‘Iceberg Alley’ Off Newfoundland

June 5, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Two men wearing jackets and hats stand at the edge of a boat looking out over the water, where a curvaceous iceberg, about the size of a house, floats in the water. — Guests aboard a tour boat approaching an iceberg near the town of Twillingate, Newfoundland.Credit…Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Where Whales, Puffins and Icebergs Jostle for Your Attention

The New York Times (June 5, 2023) – Each spring, opalescent icebergs from the Greenland ice sheet pass through Iceberg Alley, off the eastern edge of Canada, on a slow-motion journey southward.

An enormous white-and-green iceberg floats off the coastline, its shape defined by jagged peaks. In the foreground is a white-and-brown church that sits close to the coast.

“I never trust the mind of an iceberg,” Cecil Stockley told me. He estimates its length, multiplies by five and keeps his boat at least that distance away.

Dave Boyd said his safety rules depend on which type of iceberg he’s dealing with. “A tabular is generally pretty mellow,” Mr. Boyd explained as we floated off the coast of Newfoundland, referring to icebergs with steep sides and large, flat tops. “But a pinnacle” — a tall iceberg with one or more spires — “can be a real beast.”

Two small buildings — one red, one green with yellow trim — sit among a tangle of wooden piers and catwalks, along with a large bleached-white whale skeleton. — Dave Boyd, who captains tour boats, also runs Prime Berth, a museum and heritage center in Twillingate. Credit…Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Barry Rogers doesn’t just look at an iceberg; he listens to it, as well. When the normal Rice Krispies-like pop of escaping air bubbles gives way to a much louder frying-pan sizzle, the iceberg may be about to roll over or even split apart, he explained.

In 1912, one such iceberg struck the starboard side of the Titanic on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Over the years, plenty of others have done lesser damage to ships, oil rigs and even the occasional unlucky — or foolhardy — kayaker.