The Magazine
December 11, 2023
Goings On
The Food Scene
The Quiet Luxury of a Backroom Korean Tasting Menu
We’re living in a golden age of ultra-high-end, wildly creative Korean restaurants. At Meju, the chef Hooni Kim artfully distills the cuisine to its essentials.
Goings On
Women Fashion Designers Take Center Stage at the Met
Also: “Squid Game: The Challenge,” music from Romy and Liz Phair, a documentary on the authoritarian Chinese government, and more.
The Talk of the Town
Steve Coll on peacemaking in the Israel-Hamas war; lunatic drummers; preparatory Yule; vigil organizing in midtown; a meat-cute.
Retrospectives
Stewart Copeland’s “Police Diaries”: Bang On
The drummer and composer talks about his three-take style, Sting’s way with a hit, and his Muppet counterpart, Animal.
The Pictures
A Prep-School Movie Star
Dominic Sessa had only acted in school plays at Deerfield Academy when Alexander Payne plucked him from twelfth grade to star alongside Paul Giamatti in his “Christmas-blues” film, “The Holdovers.”
Meat Pies, S’il Vous Plaît
The New Must-Have for Every Stocking: French Canadian Meat Pie!
Hugue Dufour and Sarah Obraitis demonstrate how they churn out their cult-favorite tourtières from M. Wells, their bistro in Queens, having upgraded from a method that sounds like people having sex.
In the Streets
Among the Protesters
Before another demonstration against Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza, activists gather to make posters and paper poppies, and to discuss the danger of stating their views publicly.
Comment
A Ruinous War and Peacemaking in Gaza
Ceasefires usually don’t end wars, but truces can reveal much about the combatants.
Reporting & Essays
American Chronicles
What Happened When the U.S. Failed to Prosecute an Insurrectionist Ex-President
After the Civil War, Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, was to be tried for treason. Does the debacle hold lessons for the trials awaiting Donald Trump?
Profiles
How to Build a Better Motivational Speaker
The upstart motivator Jesse Itzler wants to reform his profession—while also rising to the top.
Life and Letters
A Poet’s Faith
Nearly two decades ago, Christian Wiman was diagnosed with a rare cancer and told he probably had about five years to live. In a new book, he makes the case against despair.
Annals of Technology
The Inside Story of Microsoft’s Partnership with OpenAI
The companies had honed a protocol for releasing artificial intelligence ambitiously but safely. Then OpenAI’s board exploded all their carefully laid plans.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Which Friendship Plan Is Right for You?
With the Sunday Sports Sidekick package, get ready for beer, wings, and hugs that provide a substitute for the warmth we never got from our withholding fathers. Score!
Fiction
Fiction
“Keats at Twenty-four”
There were no milestones left for him to look forward to, except headstones.
The Critics
The Theatre
The Terrifying Power of Art, in “Spain”
In Jen Silverman’s drama, Marin Ireland and Andrew Burnap play filmmakers working for the K.G.B. who tap Dos Passos and Hemingway for a Soviet propaganda movie.
Books
Briefly Noted Book Reviews
“Foreign Bodies,” “In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl,” “Holler, Child,” and “Night Watch.”
A Critic at Large
What We Learn from the Lives of Critics
They didn’t mean to become critics; they probably hoped to be better known for that novel. But, when something cuts them to the quick, they need you to know.
Books
What Can Musical Monuments Achieve That Physical Ones Can’t?
Confronting the catastrophe of the Second World War, four composers produced strikingly different responses.
Musical Events
What Does California Sound Like?
A dazzling array of new music at the California Festival, spearheaded by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The Current Cinema
Grand Appetites and “Poor Things”
In Yorgos Lanthimos’s film, Emma Stone plays a young woman who was created by a scientist, and is forever tasting the world—eating, dancing, travelling, having sex—as if it were freshly made.
Poems
Cartoons
1/15
“Don’t make eye contact, but the babysitter took the kids to the same restaurant as us.”
Cartoon by Zachary Kanin
Cartoon Caption Contest
Puzzles & Games Dept.
The Mail
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.