![WHEEL OF FORTUNE WHEEL OF FORTUNE](https://cdn.magzter.com/1422886351/1719817369/articles/Tj0upTIEh1719836581848/WHEEL-OF-FORTUNE.jpg)
The rich are always crying poverty when it comes time to pay a ransom: “Net worth and liquidity are not the same thing!” Across cinema, the moneyed and their auxiliaries question the kidnappers’ math. In the film “Fargo,” the wealthy father of Jean Lundegaard (of wood-chipper infamy) grumbles, “A million dollars is a lot of damn money.” In the action thriller “Rush Hour,” the men who kidnapped the daughter of a Chinese diplomat call to demand fifty million dollars, to which the L.A.P.D. detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) exclaims, “Fifty million dollars?! Who you think you kidnapped, Chelsea Clinton?” The real-life haggling can get just as protracted. In 1973, the oil tycoon J. Paul Getty did not agree to pay his grandson’s kidnappers until several months after the initial ransom letter, when a bloody ear turned up. Even then, Getty paid only the maximum he could claim as a tax write-off.
Not so with the Fletchers, the “extraordinarily, absurdly, kidnappably rich” family at the heart of “Long Island Compromise” (Random House), by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. When Carl Fletcher is abducted outside his estate, in 1980, his family quickly coughs up the cash; Carl’s wife, Ruth, withdraws two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from the bank like she’s getting a coffee to go. (She is married to the heir to a Styrofoam fortune, after all.) She delivers a briefcase with the money to a baggage carrousel at J.F.K. Airport, and, within minutes, Carl is dropped outside a Mobil bathroom, drenched in piss, vomit, and relief.
Bu hikaye The New Yorker dergisinin July 08, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The New Yorker dergisinin July 08, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
![SUBJECT AND OBJECT SUBJECT AND OBJECT](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/to6VeZYHB1739191198720/SUBJECT-AND-OBJECT.jpg)
SUBJECT AND OBJECT
What happened when Lillian Ross profiled Ernest Hemingway.
![ROYAL FLUSH ROYAL FLUSH](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/UI6Ma0OcX1739191861348/ROYAL-FLUSH.jpg)
ROYAL FLUSH
The fall of red.
![Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/pzN_cTFgE1739190398786/ROZ-CHAST-ON-GEORGE-BOOTHS-CARTOONS.jpg)
Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons
There's almost nothing I like more than a laughing fit. It is a non-brain response, like an orgasm or a sneeze.
![CHUKA CHUKA](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/ipIKlzJlU1739190624506/CHUKA.jpg)
CHUKA
I have always longed to be known, truly known, by another human being. Sometimes we live for years with yearnings that we cannot name.
![Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives" Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives"](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/kA0ClSAKX1739187641551/RACHEL-AVIV-ON-JANET-MALCOLMS-TROUBLE-IN-THE-ARCHIVES.jpg)
Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives"
As Janet Malcolm worked on \"Trouble in the Archives,\" a two-part piece about prominent psychoanalysts who disagreed about Freud, she began a correspondence with Kurt Eissler, the head of the Sigmund Freud Archives.
![PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/2oD61HcWT1739188467373/PERSONAL-HISTORY-A-VISIT-TO-MADAM-BEDI.jpg)
PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI
I was estranged from my own mother, so a friend tried to lend me his.
![AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/e3IBpWw0l1739185964212/AMERICAN-CHRONICLES-WAR-OF-WORDS.jpg)
AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS
Editors, writers, and the making of a magazine.
![LIVE FROM NEW YORK LIVE FROM NEW YORK](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/1Xcl8aksl1739192099780/LIVE-FROM-NEW-YORK.jpg)
LIVE FROM NEW YORK
A new docuseries commemorates fifty years of \"Saturday Night Live.\"
![TANGLED WEB TANGLED WEB](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/nkepf4WtQ1739191552715/TANGLED-WEB.jpg)
TANGLED WEB
An arachnophobe pays homage to the spider.
![TROUBLE IN PARADISE TROUBLE IN PARADISE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/ZS1PsgMcC1739187790416/TROUBLE-IN-PARADISE.jpg)
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Mike White's mischievous morality plays.