Alex had encouraged the affec-
tions of the boy, which s eems l ike a
reach. Wouldn’t a prep school be
more concerned with burying the
issue than manufacturing blame?)
Why we learn this 159 pages in is
just as mystifying as why it’s t reat-
ed as a high-profile secret and a
source of deep shame — for a long
time, w e suspect Alex has a damn-
ing, checkered past that she sim-
ply d oesn’t h ave.
There are other problems per-
colating at S tonebridge: A particu-
larly odious group of boys at the
school u se an encrypted and high-
ly misogynistic website titled the
Darkroom, where they post re-
vealing photos of Stonebridge
girls and rate sexual encounters.
When Alex assigns an anonymous
questionnaire in her c reative writ-
ing class, asking, among other
questions — What do you love?
and What do you hate? — the girls
respond that they hate the Dark-
room, and t he b oys s ay t hey love it.
After one of her classmates is hu-
miliated by the circulation of a
nude photo, Gemma Russo, w ho is
frequently described by adults as a
rebel and whose dyed hair and
SEE BOOK WORLD ON C2BY REBEKAH FRUMKINWith her new novel, Lisa Lutz,
best known for the Spellman Files
whodunit s eries, reaches for more.
“The Swallows” wants to be both
John le Carré and Doris Lessing.
It’s a n odd c om-
bination that
perhaps not
surprisingly
doesn’t quite
come together.
As “The
Swallows”
opens, we are
introduced to
Alex Witt, a
slacker instruc-
tor at Stonebri-
dge, a Vermont
boarding
school whose
headmaster
happens to be
friends with Alex’s father. Alex is
coming to Stonebridge in “dis-
grace”: We learn that a lovelorn
student at her last school filmed
her drunkenly hooking up with a
consenting adult and then distrib-
uted the video as a form of re-
venge. (The school later claimed
The ethics here are — or
should be — clear-cut.
“Universities should know
better than to be drive-through
reputational laundromats,” s aid
journalist and author Anand
Giridharadas, who has been
associated with the Media Lab
but decided to step away from an
advisory role this week in protest
of how the situation is being
handled.
Ito was penitent in a meeting
this week meant to air grievances
and begin to heal disagreements,
according to a New York Times
report. He said “that he had
visited Mr. Epstein’s Caribbean
island twice to raise money,
which he has pledged to return
or donate to causes that support
sex-trafficking victims. He also
acknowledged that he had
‘screwed up’ by accepting the
money, but that he had done so
after a review by the
Massachusetts Institute of
Te chnology and consultation
with advisers.”
These measures don’t
acknowledge the scope of what
happened, Giridharadas, author
of “Winners Ta ke All: The Elite
Charade of Changing the World”
told me by phone.
SEE SULLIVAN ON C2There’s a storm
brewing in
Cambridge, Mass.,
over substantial
donations from
the felon Jeffrey
Epstein, who died
in a jail cell last
month as he faced
federal charges for sex trafficking
of minors in Florida and New
York.
Epstein gave MIT’s Media Lab
half a million dollars — and he
gave the lab’s director, Joi Ito,
more than twice that:
$1.2 million for Ito’s own
investment funds.
Ito took the money years after
Epstein became a felon in 2008
for soliciting prostitution from a
minor.
And he socialized with
Epstein, visiting him at his
Caribbean home and elsewhere.
Ito has apologized profusely in
recent days. And so has MIT
President Rafael Reif.
But that’s not nearly enough.
MIT should send a strong
message by showing Ito the door
of the Media Lab, which
specializes in technology with a
social-justice bent and prides
itself on exploring ethical
questions.vestige of a long-gone era. As she
strutted, posed and played, she
oozed effortless, classic cool,
with a voice that is aging like the
bourbon you save for special
occasions.
Lewis made every moment
feel momentous as she glided
through favorites from her dis-
cography, from the country-
gospel of her album “Rabbit Fur
Coat” to Fleetwood Mac-esque
SEE MUSIC ON C4BY CHRIS KELLYAs s he tells it, Jenny Lewis was
born in Las Vegas after her
mother went into labor while
performing at the Sands. Like
much of old Vegas, the Sands is
no longer standing, but Lewis,
who p erformed at t he Anthem on
Thursday, is doing her best to
keep that spirit alive.
In floor-length sequins and
fuzzy cuffs, Lewis looked like aKLMNO
Style
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2019. SECTION C EZ REBY CHRIS RICHARDST
hese are wild and anxious times for our wild and anxious planet. So why do the most visible
protest songs of the Trump era feel so inert? From the numb thud of “This Is A merica” t o the
woke winks on the new Ta ylor Swift album, contemporary protest pop feels increasingly
prominent, deeply unimaginative and embarrassingly insufficient. ¶ As it stands, the two
most widely applauded protest anthems of Tr ump’s presidency are “Love It If We Made It,” by the
British band the 1975, and “This Is America,” by Childish Gambino, the nom-du-rap of Hollywood
polymath Donald Glover. The former was named the best song of 2018 by Pitchfork in December. The
latter won record and song of the year at t he Grammys in February.
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOKProtests in a minor chord
When taking a stand, today’s musicians sing out with a passive voice
JUNNE ALCANTARA/THE WASHINGTON POST; ISTOCKMUSIC REVIEWJenny Lewis can pull off
‘Rabbit Fur’ and sequins
KYLE GUSTAFSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Former Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis at the Anthem.Epstein money should cost
Media Lab’s chief his job
Margaret
SullivanA thriller that mixes
mystery and #MeToo
THE
SWALLOWS
By Lisa Lutz
Ballantine. 416
pp. $22.
BOOK WORLD
SEE NOTEBOOK ON C2