CATEGORIES

LIVING UNDER A ROCK

A geologist reflects on her life.

THE PARTICLES OF ORDER

The guest from America was to arrive in the late afternoon.

LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST

The forgotten history of sex in America.

LIFE OF THE PARTY

The Democrats seem rejuvenated by their new candidate. Why was it so hard to get one?

The Kamala Show

The evolution of Harris’ public persona.

A Cult in the Forest - The vast majority of Kenyans are Christian, a faith that arrived with early colonization. A group of Finnish missionaries brought Pentecostalism in the nineteen-hundreds

The vast majority of Kenyans are Christian, a faith that arrived with early colonization. A group of Finnish missionaries brought Pentecostalism in the nineteen-hundreds. The colonial government tried to suppress it, because a faction of pro-independence freedom fighters belonged to the African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa, which included messages about decolonization in its hymns. But after independence, in 1963, Pentecostalism and other forms of evangelical Christianity spread. They emphasized charismatic forms of worship—visions, spiritual healing, speaking in tongues—and a gospel that promised prosperity to the faithful. “If you want your church to be full, do what I call ‘spiritual gymnastics,’ ” Martin Olando, a scholar of African Christianity at the Bishop Hannington Institute, in Mombasa, told me. “Jump up and down, prophesize good tidings, tell people what they want to hear.” By the nineties, Kenya’s President, Daniel arap Moi, enjoyed a beneficial relationship with Arthur Kitonga, an influential Pentecostal bishop. “President Moi has been appointed by God to lead this country,” Kitonga said at the time. William Ruto, Kenya’s current President, and its first evangelical one, brought gospel singers into his campaign team and party, and has donated cars, and thousands of dollars, to evangelical churches. His wife, Rachel, invited the U.S.-based televangelist Benny Hinn to preach with her at a crusade. (This year, Hinn apologized for giving fake prophecies. “There were times when I thought God had showed me something that He wasn’t showing me,” he told the Christian podcast “Strang Report.”)

My Life's Work- All I have in the world is a paternal aunt and a tank of fish that love me. And my work. I'm nobody.

Who am I? I’m nobody. I was cut from every team in high school. I didn’t go to an Ivy League college.

FUTURE IMPERFECT

“Hum,” Helen Phillips’s third novel, begins with a needle being drawn, steadily and irreversibly, across a woman named May’s face.

THE NARAYANS

Mrs. Narayan was small, dark-skinned, oval-faced. She had a wonderful singsong voice.

OUT OF THE PAST

At the beginning of “The Spirit of the Beehive” (1973), Víctor Erice’s sublime first feature, a travelling projectionist arrives at a remote Castilian village, bearing a print of James Whale’s “Frankenstein.”

THE INFILTRATORS

Who’ leading the way in investigating far-right extremists: FBI. agents or leftist vigilantes?

An Intoxicating 500-Yearold Mystery - The Voynich Manuscript has long baffled scholars-and attracted cranks and conspiracy theorists.

The Voynich Manuscript has long baffled scholars-and attracted cranks and conspiracy theorists. Now a prominent medievalist is taking a new approach to unlocking its secrets.

Another Country- Searching for James Baldwin in the South of France

Since James Baldwin's death nearly 40 years ago, the literary lion's final home, in the South of France, has drawn a procession of acolytes to the Provençal community of Saint-Paul de Vence, where he spent the last 17 years of his life.The 300-year-old villa in which he resided no longer exists: By 2019 developers had converted the site into a luxury apartment complex. But that hasn't deterred generations of admirers, inflamed and enlightened by Baldwin's prose, from making a pilgrimage. Including me. Seizing the occasion of the writer's centennial year, I paid a visit in April. My first stop was a table at a Baldwin hangout, the Café de la Place on Place du Général de Gaulle, for a croque monsieur and a double espresso.

Playing It STRAIGHT

Dynamic young stars have broken out in queer roles. Should their own sexuality matter?

FAULT Lines

With tensions still running high over the war in Gaza, many of the Upper East Side's Jewish denizens are circling the wagons.

Novel IDEA

A book start-up wants sexy reading to be guilt-free (no dragons, either)

Paris When It Sizzled

IN 1973, FIVE AMERICAN DESIGNERS AND 36 MODELS DESCENDED ON THE CITY OF LIGHT FOR WHAT WOULD BECOME AN ERA-DEFINING FASHION SHOW-AND WITH THEM WAS PHOTOGRAPHER BILL CUNNINGHAM. HERE, AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT HIS TREASURE TROVE OF LARGELY UNSEEN PHOTOS, PUBLISHED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME

SETTING THE STAGE

Before they conquered Hollywood, George Segal, Peter Falk, Roy Scheider, and Wayne Rogers were some of the finest-though perhaps not the finest-stage actors in New York. WAYNE LAWSON, who knew them when, revisits a golden era that revolutionized American theater

FULL-COURT PRESS

Microsoft made him one of the richest men alive. Now STEVE BALLMER is chasing one of the few prizes money (alone) can't buy: an NBA championship for his team, the Los Angeles Clippers, whose staggeringly expensive state-of-the-art arena opens this summer

The Natural

Comedy, singing, scandal, attempted murder: Meghann Fahy, the breakout star of The White Lotus and now The Perfect Couple, can do it all

HOPE AND CHANGE?

As the threat of another Trump presidency looms, AMERICA TURNS ITS EYES TO THE OBAMAS, who remain two of the most important politicians in the world-whether they like it or not

CONSIDER

NO ONE KNOWS CANDIDATE ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.'S PROBLEMATIC HISTORY BETTER THAN HIS FAMILY. JOE HAGAN TALKS TO THAT RELUCTANT INNER CIRCLE ABOUT KENNEDY'S PAST AND THE STAKES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE

The stars are aligning for GERALDINE VISWANATHAN

In another universe, Geraldine Viswanathan got her big break on the Disney Channel. \"I think about it all the time,\" she says.

THE TWISTED LOVE STORY OF JOSE AND LADDY BETTY

A 95-year-old diamond heiress and her much younger genderfluid spouse became social media stars. Was theirs a feelgood romance for the agesor something far darker?

Love Trouble Is My Business- “President Reagan resembled a bashful cowboy the other day when he was asked about the apparent collapse of the ‘Star Wars' talks with the Soviet Union. . . .

Francis X. Clines, in the Sunday Times . . . : “President Reagan resembled a bashful cowboy the other day when he was asked about the apparent collapse of the ‘Star Wars’ talks with the Soviet Union. . . .

TALKING DIRTY

Chelsea Handler sexes up late night.

A CRACK IN THE GREASEPAINT

How \"Saturday Night Live\" breaks the mold.

CHABLIS Donald Barthelm

My wife wants a dog. She already has a baby. The baby’s almost two. My wife says that the baby wants the dog.

PRYOR LOVE

The life and times of America's comic prophet of race.

CORRECTIONS

Because of an editing error, an article in Friday’s theatre section transposed the identifications of two people involved in the production of “Waiting for Bruce,” a farce now in rehearsal at the Rivoli. Ralph W. Murtaugh, Jr., a New York attorney, is one of the play’s financial backers.