4 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN
9 THE TALK OF THE TOWN
David Remnick on covid-19 and alternative facts;
chicken with a side of sanitizer; teen corona tracker;
the toilet-paper hoarders; viral connections.
THE POLITICAL SCENE
Susan B. Glasser 14 Hope Dies Last
The Never Trumper who won’t give up.
SHOUTS & MURMURS
John Kenney 21 Guidelines
ANNALS OF CULTURE
Jill Lepore 22 Don’t Come Any Closer
What can we learn from the literature of contagion?LETTER FROM CHENGDU
Peter Hessler 26 Life on Lockdown
A family’s experience of China’s nationwide quarantine.COMIC STRIP
Chris Ware 35 “Self-Isolating: A Pandemic Special”OUR LOCAL CORRESPONDENTS
Adam Gopnik 38 Abundance of Caution
with Philip Montgomery Fear and solitude as New York’s streets empty.
FICTION
Han Ong 56 “Futures”
THE CRITICS
ON TELEVISION
Doreen St. Félix 65 Turning to the screen for togetherness.
A CRITIC AT LARGE
David Denby 67 Harry Houdini’s many escapes.
BOOKS
Casey Cep 71 The political ambitions of Joseph Smith.
73 Briefly Noted
Leo Robson 77 Anna Kavan’s fictional experimentation.THE THEATRE
Vinson Cunningham 80 Jean Toomer’s “A Drama of the Southwest.”POEMS
Jorie Graham 30 “I Won’t Live Long”
W. S. Di Piero 60 “Aubade”
COVER
Eric Drooker “Grand Central Terminal”DRAWINGS Sofia Warren, Paul Noth, Lars Kenseth, Zachary Kanin, Roz Chast, Emily Flake,
Sara Lautman, Luke Kruger-Howard, David Ostow, Michael Maslin, Kim Warp S POTS Josh Cochran