Books & Fiction: The United States of Dolly Parton

Plus: the heartsick hilarity of John Berryman’s letters; and new poems by Louise Glück and Arthur Sze. View in browser | Update your preferences Books The United States of Dolly Parton A voice for working-class women and an icon for all kinds of women, Parton has maintained her star power throughout life phases and political cycles. By Lauren Michele Jackson Essays & Criticism Books The Heartsick Hilarity of John Berryman’s Letters Tracking the poet’s chaotic, self-destructive life, his correspondence strains toward the condition of music. By Anthony Lane Page-Turner Louise Glück, Whisperer of the Seasons The 2020 Nobel laureate in literature is an impersonal artist, whose poems, assembling around you, feel blindingly personal, like the seasons themselves. By Katy Waldman Books Briefly Noted “The Spymasters,” “Having and Being Had,” “The Perfect Nine,” and “Missionaries.” Poetry Poems “Song” “Never again: / that is what we do not say.” By Louise Glück Poems “Vectors” “First extinction in the Galápagos Islands, the least vermillion flycatcher—” By Arthur Sze The Writer’s Voice The Writer’s Voice: Fiction from the Magazine Roddy Doyle Reads “Life Without Children” The author reads his story from the October 19, 2020, issue of the magazine. More from The New Yorker Photo Booth Mike Mandel’s Selfies from the Seventies Curiosity is the animating force of the photographs. You start to sense that Mandel sees everyone—the stranger and the self—as members of the same team. By Emma Cline Kitchen Notes The French Secret to Ratatouille, a Last Taste of Summer It was only with this dish that I realized how important the cook-things-separately approach is in French cooking. By Bill Buford This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.