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10.8.07 Issue: Suddenly There Came a Tapping

Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: fiction, Nancy Franklin, Patton Oswalt, Rebecca Mead, Tessa Hadley, TV, Zoe Heller

In which the staff of Emdashes reviews the high points and discusses the particulars of the previous week’s issue (or, occasionally, another edition).

Tessa Hadley's story “Married Love” started out comic and, by the end, worked in helpless regret. This is one of those stories where it's difficult to tell where the comic leaves off. The story reminded me of the flaky October-June marriage in Zoë Heller's Notes on a Scandal; these families could be neighbors. The standout article for me was Rebecca Mead's Reporter at Large, "Our Man in Pyongyang," about Bobby Egan, a New Jersey restaurateur who is our primary back channel to North Korea.

And if you were considering following Nancy Franklin's advice and watch Friday Night Lights, by all means do. Standup comedian Patton Oswalt called it "the closest thing...to a Dogme 95 film on television," the endorsement that induced me to investigate.

The Writers Guild strike has upended both the foreseeable future for so many good shows (and their writers) and the ethics of purchasing a DVD (for which writers earn meager residuals—as of now), but note that Friday Night Lights' creators are so confident in its quality that they offer a money-back guarantee. —Martin Schneider

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Who she?

I'm Emily Gordon, reachable at emily@emdashes.com.

I'm an editor at PRINT magazine in New York City. I've worked at The Nation, Newsday, PEN America, and Legal Affairs. I've written for the NY Times Book Review, Salon, The Washington Post, The Village Voice... continued

Affinities | Blurbs

I welcome tips, questions, and comments about The New Yorker past and present, plus related events, links, typeface sightings, &c. To contact the magazine or send a submission, click here.

No fear: Everything you say or send is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.

This site is neither owned nor operated by The New Yorker magazine or Condé Nast Publications.

A few clips

Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)

More clips.

Tell me more

They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.

Primary sources

The New Yorker
Events listed by the magazine
Web resources: New Yorker writers and artists
Books, Organizations, &c.

Written and edited by Emily Gordon (plus various guest contributors), designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

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