The New York Review of Books - May 26, Bestsellery, The New York Times Book Review
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//-->Joan Didion:California NotesMay 26, 2016/ Volume LXIII, Number 9MarkDanner:The Magicof DonaldTrumpGoing Darkby Sue HalpernDianeJohnson:Gay LoveBotticelli in HellTHE GUNNING OFA M ER I CA“Masterful. . . . A salutary corrective tothe perception of the gun’s inevitabilityin American life . . . beautifully composedand meticulously researched.”—NEW REPUBLICB I N D U S A PA RT“A must-read for all who areinterested in the origins of America’stroubled racial landscape.”— A N N E T T E G O R D O N - R EED,Harvard UniversityJ O H N Q U I N C Y A DA M S“A splendid new biography. . . . Reliablythorough, blissfully bereft of jargon,and nicely paced.”— J O S EP H J. ELLI S ,NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWBOUND FORG R E AT N E S SNEW TITLESfromBASIC BOOKSH OW T O LI S T ENT O JA Z Z“A crash course in jazz appreciationthat’s suitable for newcomers andintermediate listeners alike. . . .Inviting and often playful.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLYT H E LI M O U S I N ELI B ER A L“This lucid, often entertaining, genealogyof right-wing populism is necessarybackground reading for anyone seeking tounderstand or just endure 2016.”— BA R BA R A EH R EN R EI C HC L A S S I CA L LI T ER AT U R E“There is scarcely anything on which[ Jenkyns] does not offer an originalaperçu, sometimes illuminating,sometimes simply provocative,but always worth reading.”—NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKSOver 60 Years of Publishing ExcellenceBASIC BOOKSContents481416Joan DidionCharlie SavageDiane JohnsonAndrew ButterfieldCalifornia NotesPlaying to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terrorby Michael V. HaydenOur Young Manby Edmund WhiteBotticelli and Treasures from the Hamilton Collectionan exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, LondonCatalog of the exhibition edited by Dagmar KorbacherBotticelli Reimaginedan exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonCatalog of the exhibition edited by Mark Evans and Stefan WeppelmannCyberphobia: Identity, Trust, Security and the Internetby Edward LucasThe Future of Foreign Intelligence: Privacy and Surveillance in a Digital Ageby Laura K. DonohueThe Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Ageby Adam SegalDark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber Warby Fred KaplanElektraan opera by Richard Strauss, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York CityBrilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouseby Eric Jay DolinMr. Smith Goes to Prison: What My Year Behind Bars Taught Me About America’s Prison Crisisby Jeff SmithUnderstanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Timeby James KilgoreThe First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison Americaby Naomi MurakawaFrom the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in Americaby Elizabeth HintonCaught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politicsby Marie GottschalkThe Lady with the Borzoi: Blanche Knopf, Literary Tastemaker Extraordinaireby Laura ClaridgeIslamisation and Its Opponents in Java: A Political, Social, Cultural and Religious Historyby M.C. RicklefsIslam in Indonesia: The Contest for Society, Ideas and Valuesby Carool KerstenIslam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance Without Liberalismby Jeremy MenchikThe Noise of Timeby Julian BarnesThe Most Wanted Man in China: My Journey from Scientist to Enemy of the Stateby Fang LizhiPoemNotes on the Death of Culture: Essays on Spectacle and Societyby Mario Vargas LlosaThe Discreet Heroby Mario Vargas LlosaNegroland: A Memoirby Margo JeffersonThe Story of the Lost Childby Elena FerranteBecause of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives at Workby Gillian ThomasLeap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933–1957an exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts,Columbus, OhioCatalog of the exhibition by Helen Molesworth with Ruth EricksonIntersecting Colors: Josef Albers and His Contemporariesan exhibition at the Mead Art Museum,Amherst, MassachusettsCatalog of the exhibition edited by Vanja MalloyFor Two Thousand Yearsby Mihail SebastianLion of the Senate: When Ted Kennedy Rallied the Democrats in aGOPCongressby Nick Littlefield and David NexonThe History of Balance, 1250–1375: The Emergence of a New Model of Equilibrium and Its Impact on Thoughtby Joel KayePeacekeepingby Mischa BerlinskiHume: An Intellectual Biographyby James A. HarrisCrippled America: How to Make America Great Againby Donald J. TrumpLaura (Diachenko) Sheehan, Robert Kaiser, and Gian Giacomo Migone20Sue Halpern242630Geoffrey O’BrienNathaniel RichAdam Hochschild34373942444548515456Francine ProseMargaret ScottOrlando FigesFreeman DysonJane YehMichael GreenbergDarryl PinckneyRoger CohenLinda GreenhouseChristopher BenfeyTHE SECRET LINKBETWEEN MUSIC ANDTHE STRUCTURE OFTHE UNIVERSESTEPHON ALEXANDER58616466687174John BanvilleJeff MadrickEamon DuffyPhillip LopateAnthony GottliebMark DannerLetters fromCONTRIBUTORSJOHN BANVILLE’s most recent novel isThe Blue Guitar.CHRISTOPHER BENFEYis Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke.He is the author, most recently, ofRed Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay.ANDREW BUTTERFIELDis President of Andrew Butterfield Fine Arts.He is the author ofThe Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio,among otherbooks.ROGER COHENis a columnist forThe New York Times.His most recentbook is the memoirThe Girl from Human Street: Ghosts of Memory in a Jew-ish Family.MARK DANNERis Chancellor’s Professor of English and Journalism at theUniversity of California at Berkeley and James Clarke Chace Professor of For-eign Affairs and the Humanities at Bard. His new book,Spiral: Trapped in theForever War,will be published in June. Last month he was named an AndrewCarnegie Fellow.JOAN DIDIONis the author, most recently, ofBlue NightsandThe Year ofMagical Thinking,among seven other works of nonfiction. Her five novels in-cludeA Book of Common PrayerandDemocracy.EAMON DUFFYis Emeritus Professor of the History of Christianity at theUniversity of Cambridge. His latest book isSaints, Sacrilege and Sedition: Re-ligion and Conflict in the Tudor Reformations.FREEMAN DYSONis Professor of Physics Emeritus at the Institute for Ad-vanced Study in Princeton. His most recent book isDreams of Earth and Sky,a collection of his writing in these pages.ORLANDO FIGESis Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University ofLondon. He is the author, most recently, ofRevolutionary Russia: 1891–1991:A History.ANTHONY GOTTLIEBis the author ofThe Dream of Reason: A History ofPhilosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissanceand a former Executive EditorofThe Economist.His new book,The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise ofModern Philosophy,will be published in August.MICHAEL GREENBERGis the author ofHurry Down SunshineandBeg,Borrow, and Steal: A Writer’s Life.LINDA GREENHOUSEis Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale LawSchool. She writes an opinion column on the Supreme Court and law forTheNew York Times.Her new book with Michael J. Graetz,The Burger Court andthe Rise of the Judicial Right,will be published in June.SUE HALPERNis a regular contributor toThe New York Reviewand aScholar-in-Residence at Middlebury. Her latest book isA Dog Walks into aNursing Home.ADAM HOCHSCHILD’s books includeKing Leopold’s Ghost, To End AllWars,andSpain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936 –1939,which was published in March. He teaches at the Graduate School ofJournalism at the University of California at Berkeley.DIANE JOHNSONis a novelist and critic. She is the author ofLulu in Mar-rakechandLe Divorce,among other novels, and a memoir,Flyover Lives.PHILLIP LOPATE’s most recent book isTo Show and to Tell,a collection ofessays. He is a Professor in the Writing Program at Columbia.JEFF MADRICKis the Director of the Bernard L. Schwartz RediscoveringGovernment Initiative at the Century Foundation and Editor ofChallengeMagazine.He teaches at Lang College, the New School. His bookSeven BadIdeas: How Mainstream Economists Damaged America and the Worldwaspublished last year.GEOFFREY O’BRIENis Editor in Chief of the Library of America. Hismost recent book is the poetry collectionIn a Mist.DARRYL PINCKNEYis a longtime contributor toThe New York Review.His most recent novel,Black Deutschland,was published in February.FRANCINE PROSEis a Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bard. Her newnovel,Mister Monkey,will be published in October.NATHANIEL RICHis the author, most recently, ofOdds Against Tomorrow.CHARLIE SAVAGEis a Washington Correspondent forThe New YorkTimes.His latest book isPower Wars: Inside Obama’s Post–9/11 Presidency.MARGARET SCOTTwas Cultural Editor of theFar Eastern Economic Re-viewand has written about Indonesia forThe New York Reviewand theTimesLiterary Supplement.She teaches at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.JANE YEH’s most recent collection of poems isThe Ninjas.“If you spend one eveningof your life contemplatingthe relationship betweenart and science, spend itwith this book.”— L E E S M O L I N,authorofThe Trouble with Physics“A riveting firsthandaccount of the power of theintuitive and unconsciousin the process of scientificdiscovery. Being both a top-notch physicist and jazzmusician, Stephon Alexanderhas a unique voice. Listeningto him, you will hear themusic of the universe.”— E D W A R D F R E N K E L,author ofLove and Math“This book could just as wellbe calledThe Joy of Physicsbecause what leaps out fromit is Stephon Alexander’sdelight and curiosityabout the cosmos, and thedeep pleasure he finds inexploring it.”— BRIAN ENOOnline comment fromNew York Reviewcontributors at nybooks.com/daily»Tim Parks:Switching Languages»Francine Prose:A Huckster in the Desert»Christopher Benfey:Filming Kipling»Jenny Uglow:Russian Portraits in LondonPlus: An interview with the Syrian poet Adonis, and moreEditor:Robert B. SilversSenior Editors:Michael Shae, Hugh Eakin, Eve Bowen, Jana PrikrylContributing Editor:Ann KjellbergAssistant Editors:Gabriel Winslow-Yost, Christopher Carroll,Madeleine SchwartzFounding Co-editor:Barbara Epstein (1928–2006)Publisher:Rea S. HedermanAssociate Publisher:Catherine TiceBusiness Manager:Raymond ShapiroAdvertising Director:Lara Frohlich AndersenAndrew Katzenstein and Max Nelson, Editorial Assistants; Liza Batkin, Editorial Intern; Sylvia Lonergan, Researcher; Borden Elniff, Katie Jefferis, John Thorp,and Daniel Drake, Type Production; Janet Noble, Cover Production; Kazue Soma Jensen, Production; Maryanne Chaney, Web Production Coordinator; MichaelKing, Technical Director & Advertising Sales Manager; Oona Patrick, Classified Advertising; Nicholas During, Publicity; Nancy Ng, Design Director; JaniceFellegara, Director of Marketing and Planning; Andrea Moore, Assistant Circulation Manager; Matthew Howard, Director of Electronic Publishing; AngelaHederman, Special Projects; Diane R. Seltzer, Office Manager/List Manager; Patrick Hederman, Rights; Margarette Devlin, Comptroller; Pearl Williams, Assis-tant Comptroller; Teddy Wright, Receptionist; Microfilm and Microcard Services:NAPC, 300 North Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106.On the cover: detail of Botticelli’s ‘Inferno XVIII,’ circa 1490, which appears in full on page 18. The illustrations on the cover and on pages 8, 10, and 71 are by JamesFerguson. The drawings on pages 40 and 70 are by David Levine. The drawing on page 73 is by John Springs. The collage by Josef Albers on page 57 is © ArtistsRights Society (ARS), New York. The engraving on page 74 is by Grandville.The New York Review of Books(ISSN 0028-7504), published 20 times a year, monthly in January, July, August, and September; semi-monthly in February,March, April, May, June, October, November, and December. NYREV, Inc., 435 Hudson Street, Suite 300, New York, NY 10014-3994. Periodicals postage paidat New York, NY 10001 and at additional offices. Canada Post Corp. Sales Agreement #40031306. Postmaster: Send address changes to The New York Review ofBooks, P.O. Box 9310, Big Sandy, TX 75755-9310. Subscription services: www.nybooks.com/customer-service, or e-mail nyrsub@nybooks.info, or call 800-354-0050in the US, 903-636-1101 elsewhere.3California NotesJoan DidionI had told Jann Wenner ofRollingStonethat I would cover the PattyHearst trial, and this pushed me intoexamining my thoughts about Califor-nia. Some of my notes from the timefollow here. I never wrote the pieceabout the Hearst trial, but I went to SanFrancisco in 1976 while it was going onand tried to report it. And I got quiteinvolved in uncovering my own mixedemotions. This didn’t lead to my writingthe piece, but eventually it led to—yearslater—WhereI Was From(2003).When I was there for the trial, I stayedat the Mark. And from the Mark, youcould look into the Hearst apartment.So I would sit in my room and imag-ine Patty Hearst listening toCarousel.I had read that she would sit in herroom and listen to it. I thought the trialhad some meaning for me—because Iwas from California. This didn’t turnout to be true.—March 23, 2016The first time I was ever on an airplanewas in 1955 and flights had names.This one was “The Golden Gate,”American Airlines. Serving Trans-continental Travelers between SanFrancisco and New York. A week be-fore, twenty-one years old, I had beenmoping around Berkeley in my sneak-ers and green raincoat and now I wasa Transcontinental Traveler, LunchingAloft on Beltsville Roast Turkey withDressing and Giblet Sauce. I believedin Dark Cottons. I believed in SmallHats and White Gloves. I believed thattranscontinental travelers did not wearwhite shoes in the City. The next sum-mer I went back on “The New Yorker,”United Airlines, and had a Martini-on-the-Rocks and Stuffed Celery auRoquefort over the Rockies.The image of the Golden Gate is verystrong in my mind. As unifying imagesgo this one is particularly vivid.At theSacramento UnionI learnedthat Eldorado County and EldoradoCity are so spelled but that regularusage of El Dorado is two words; toUPPER CASECamellia Week, theCentral Valley, Sacramento IrrigationDistrict, Liberator bombers and Super-fortresses, the Follies Bergere [sic], theCentral Valley Project, and “such nick-names as Death Row, Krauts, or Jerriesfor Germans, Doughboys, Leather-necks, Devildogs.”Looking through the evidence Ifind what seems to me now (or ratherseemed to me then) an entirely spuri-ous aura of social success and achieve-ment. I seem to have gotten my namein the paper rather a lot. I seem tohave belonged to what were in contextthe “right” clubs. I seem to have beenrewarded, out of all proportion to mygenerally undistinguished academicrecord, with an incommensurate num-ber of prizes and scholarships (meritscholarships only: I did not qualify forneed) and recommenda-tions and special atten-tion and very probably theenvy and admiration of atleast certain of my peers.Curiously I only remem-ber failing, failures andslights and refusals.I seem to have gone todances and been photo-graphed in pretty dresses,and also as a pom-pomgirl. I seemed to havebeen a bridesmaid rathera lot. I seem always tohave been “the editor” orthe “president.”I believed that I wouldalways go to teas.This is not about Patri-cia Hearst. It is about meand the peculiar vacuumin which I grew up, a vac-uum in which the Hearstscould be quite literallyking of the hill.I have never knowndeprivation.How High the Moon,Les Paul and Mary Ford.High Noon.wake. Rattlers in the dry grass. Sharksbeneath the Golden Gate. In the Souththey are convinced that they havebloodied their place with history. In theWest we do not believe that anythingwe do can bloody the land, or changeit, or touch it.How could it have come to this.I am trying to place myself in history.I have been looking all my life forhistory and have yet to find it.The resolutely “colorful,” anec-dotal quality of San Francisco history.“Characters” abound. It puts one off.In the South they are convinced thatthey are capable of having bloodiedlife: dried flowers were seen to have amore lasting charm than fresh, printsshould be faded, a wallpaper should bestreaked by the sun before it looks right.As decorative touches went our highestmoment was the acquisition of a house(we, the family, moved into it in 1951at 22nd and T in Sacramento) in whichthe curtains had not been changedsince 1907. Our favorite curtains in thishouse were gold silk organza on a highwindow on the stairwell. They hung al-most two stories, billowed iridescentlywith every breath of air, and crumbledat the touch. To our extreme disap-proval, Genevieve Didion our grand-mother replaced thesecurtains when she movedinto the house in the late1950s. I think of those cur-tains still, and so does mymother. (domestic design)Oriental leanings. Thelittle ebony chests, thedishes. Maybeck houses.Mists. The individualraised to mystic level,mysticism with no reli-gious basis.Jill KrementzArden School class prophecy:In Carnegie Hall we find ShirleyLongUp on the stage singing a song.Acting in pictures is ArthurRaney’s job,And he is often followed by agreat mob.As a model Yavette Smith hasachieved fame,Using “Bubbles” as hernickname . . .We find Janet Haight workinghard as a missionary,Smart she is and uses adictionary . . .We find Joan Didion as a WhiteHouse residentNow being the first womanpresident.4Atherton* I recognize theterritory of the subtext.The Assemblies unat-tended, the plantationsabandoned—in the novelsas in the dreamtime—be-cause of high and nobleconvictions about slavery.Maybe they had convic-tions, maybe they did not,but they had also workedout the life of the farm.In the novels as well asthe autobiography of Mrs.Atherton we see a pro-vincial caste system at itsmost malign. The pride inhave lived most of“perfect taste,” in “simplemy life under misappre-frocks.”hensions of one kind orIn the autobiography,another. Until I was inpage 72, note Mrs. Ather-college I believed that myton cutting snakes in twofather was “poor,” thatwith an axe.Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, Trancas, California, March 1972;we had no money, thatWhen I read Gertrudephotograph by Jill Krementzpennies mattered. I recallAtherton I think not onlybeing surprised the firstof myself but of Patriciatime my small brother ordered a dimeHearst, listening toCarouselin hertheir land with history. In the West werather than a nickel ice cream cone androom on California Street.lack this conviction.no one seemed to mind.The details of the Atherton life ap-Beautiful country burn again.My grandmother, who was in factpear in the Atherton fiction, or theThe sense of not being up to thepoor, spent money: the Lilly Daché anddetails of the fiction appear in the au-landscape.Mr. John hats, the vicuña coats, thetobiography: it is difficult to say whichhand-milled soap and the $60-an-ounceis the correct construction. The bedsThere in the Ceremonial Courtroomperfume were to her the necessities ofof Parma violets at the Atherton housea secular mass was being offered.life. When I was about to be sixteen shedissolve effortlessly into the beds ofasked me what I wanted for my birthdayParma violets at Maria Ballinger-see now that the life I was raised toand I made up a list (an Ultra-VioletGroome Abbott’s house in Atherton’sadmire was infinitely romantic. Thelipstick, some other things), meaningThe Sisters-in-Law.Gertrude’s motherclothes chosen for me had a strong ele-for her to pick one item and surprisehad her three-day “blues,” as did one ofment of the Pre-Raphaelite, the medi-me: she bought the list. She gave me mythe characters inSleeping Fires.Wereeval. Muted greens and ivories. Dustyfirst grown-up dress, a silk jersey dressthere Parma violets at the Athertonroses. (Other people wore powderprinted with pale blue flowers and jer-house? Did Gertrude’s mother haveblue, red, white, navy, forest green, andsey petals around the neckline. It camethree-day blues?Black Watch plaid. I thought of themfrom the Bon Marché in SacramentoWhen I contrast the houses in whichas “conventional,” but I envied themand I knew what it cost ($60) becauseI was raised, in California, to admire,secretly. I was doomed to unconven-I had seen it advertised in the paper. Iwith the houses my husband wastionality.) Our houses were also darkersee myself making many of the sameraised, in Connecticut, to admire, I amthan other people’s, and we favored, aschoices for my daughter.a definite preference, copper and brassAt the center of this story there is*Gertrude Atherton (1857–1948) wasthat had darkened and greened. We alsoa terrible secret, a kernel of cyanide,born in San Francisco and becamelet our silver darken carefully in all theand the secret is that the story doesn’ta prolific and at times controversialengraved places, to “bring out the pat-matter, doesn’t make any difference,writer of novels, short stories, essays,tern.” To this day I am disturbed bydoesn’t figure. The snow still falls in theand articles on subjects that includedhighly polished silver. It looks “too new.”Sierra. The Pacific still trembles in itsfeminism, politics, and war. Many ofThis predilection for “the old” car-her novels are set in California.bowl. The great tectonic plates strainried into all areas of our domestic—The Editorsagainst each other while we sleep andWhen I read GertrudeIIThe New York ReviewGREGORY WOODS,Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World“A well-researched,compelling study of how countless gay men have affected, influenced, and restructured the culturalclimate for more than 100 years. . . . Provides a wonderful resource for those interested in learning aboutthe rise of gay poetics at the onset of the 20th century.”—KirkusReviews,starred reviewD AV I D C R Y S TA L,The Gift of the Gab: How Eloquence WorksA many-faceted exploration of spokeneloquence: an explanation of how it works in everyday situations as well as in great political oratory, andan array of useful insights for all those who wish to tap the power of eloquent speech.NEAL GABLER,Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power“Superb. . . . [Gabler]vitally anatomizes singer, actor, and director Streisand’s unique accomplishments and far-reachinginfluence.”—Booklist, starred reviewJOEL E.DIMSDALE,Jewish LivesAnatomy of Malice: The Enigma of the Nazi War Criminals“A masterful and rigorousportrayal of the trial of the Nazi war criminals. Superbly written and meticulously researched, this isa riveting narrative of the trial, the Nazi criminals, and the psychologist who analyzed them.”—IrvinYalom, Stanford UniversityTERRY EAGLETON,CultureIn this keenly analytical and acerbically funny book, leading literary andcultural critic Terry Eagleton explores how culture and our conceptualizations of it have evolved over thelast two centuries. “An impressive display of erudition.”—PublishersWeeklyyalebooks.comMay 26, 20165
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