New Fiction by Andrea Lee—How Thomas Jefferson Understood Jesus—A Lost Psych-Ward Memoir

Plus: the uneasy afterlife of “A Confederacy of Dunces.” View in browser | Update your preferences Fiction “The Rivals” “Long vanished were the days of contemplating the sunrise together over caffè ristretto.” By Andrea Lee This Week in Fiction Andrea Lee on Fictionalizing Madagascar The author discusses “The Rivals,” her story from this week’s issue of the magazine. By Deborah Treisman Fiction “Luda and Milena” If you liked “The Rivals,” we think you will enjoy this story, from 2007. By Lara Vapnyar Essays & Criticism Books What Thomas Jefferson Could Never Understand About Jesus Jefferson revised the Gospels to make Jesus more reasonable, and lost the power of his story. By Vinson Cunningham Page-Turner What a Psych-Ward Memoir Teaches Us About Madness “W-3,” Bette Howland’s account of her institutionalization, proceeds according to a simple binary: those who suffer are patients; those who don’t are not. By Katy Waldman Second Read The Uneasy Afterlife of “A Confederacy of Dunces” The book has long been considered a classic. But, forty years after its publication, its virtues seem inextricable from its flaws. By Tom Bissell More from The New Yorker The Current Cinema “Dear Comrades!” Is Andrei Konchalovsky’s Masterpiece Ideology smacks head on into love in the director’s film about the 1962 massacre of striking workers in Novocherkassk. By Anthony Lane Postscript The Wondrous Rhymes of MF Doom The wildly original rapper, who died at age forty-nine, wore a mask while performing that offered protection and a narrative device. By Hua Hsu 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.