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September 29, 2024

Good morning. Today, we’re covering one of the most passionate fan
bases in literature — as well as Israel and Hezbollah, Hurricane Helene
and an interview with John Oliver. —David Leonhardt
 At a bookstore in London. Jeremie Souteyrat for The New York Times

Conversations with fans

By Desiree Ibekwe
I’m a writer for The Morning.

On Wednesday, a crowd of mostly young women, many carrying bookstore tote

bags, filled a venue on the bank of the River Thames. They — we — were there
to hear the Irish novelist Sally Rooney discuss “Intermezzo,” her latest novel.
Rooney is a literary star, and each new release is a highly anticipated and
heavily marketed cultural event. Fans attend midnight release parties. The
lucky few who get advance copies wield them as status symbols on social media.
“I did post the book,” a 26-year-old Rooney fan told me. “Everyone knows I’m
obsessed with her.”

Rooney’s writing embodies a kind of cool that feels of the moment. Her style is
unforced, spare and incisive — the literary equivalent of Gen Z’s habit of
omitting capital letters from text messages, or the doe-eyed, bored poses of
influencers on Instagram. “If writing is almost too effusive, too emotional, it
becomes a bit cliché,” another fan told me. “I think her writing feels really fresh
because it’s pared back.”

The simplicity of Rooney’s language is part of its power. Her most emotionally
resonant sentences have word counts in the single digits, and they arise in
mundane situations. “Normal People,” Rooney’s second novel, is about two
young people, Connell and Marianne, who are negotiating their relationship,
with its various power imbalances, while feeling out their place in the world. I
think about this scene a lot:

“She smiled, rubbed at her nose. He unzipped his black puffer

jacket and put it over her shoulders. They were standing very
close. She would have lain on the ground and let him walk over
her body if he wanted, he knew that.”

Many of the Rooney fans I spoke with at the book talk on Wednesday — all in
their late 20s — praised the emotional truth of her writing. “I couldn’t believe
that somebody had written something that I related to so much,” a fan said of
“Normal People.” Rooney’s books deal in the fraught business of interpersonal
relationships — the difficulty of vulnerability, miscommunication,
understanding one’s own power over another.

At an “Intermezzo” midnight release party in Brooklyn. Ye Fan for The New York Times

Her characters often consider their political and social context, what it means
to be young and to be in love right now, at a time when connection can be
difficult and things appear to be falling apart. In Rooney’s third novel,
“Beautiful World, Where Are You,” the character Alice writes to her best friend,
Eileen:

“I think of the twentieth century as one long question, and in the

 end we got the answer wrong. Aren’t we unfortunate babies to be
born when the world ended?”

At the event, I found myself thinking about Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour,
which I attended a couple of weeks ago. There are, of course, considerable
differences between Rooney and Swift. Yet their fan bases are demographically
similar — there is certainly overlap — and they share a desire to see themselves
in their idol’s work. I thought, then, about how few avenues Rooney’s fans, as
opposed to Swift’s, had to connect to her. A key part of Swift’s appeal is her
willingness to narrate her life as it happens. She courts her fans’ investment not
only in her work but in herself. Swift is an active participant in her celebrity.

Rooney seems quite removed from the hype that surrounds her career. She’s
made clear her discomfort with publicity and the idea of books as a commodity,
and she guards details about her personal life, and often objects to claims that
her work is a reflection of personal experience. “I don’t have any interest in
marketing my books,” she told The Times of London. “I certainly don’t answer
interview questions with the intention of selling my book.” At the talk on
Wednesday, one fan, jokingly, lamented how difficult it was to develop a
parasocial relationship with Rooney.

Rooney’s debut, “Conversations with Friends,” was released when she was just
26. She published “Normal People” a year later, and it was adapted into a
popular television series, which seemed to turbocharge her career. Both novels
concerned the lives of university students.
 In London. Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Rooney is now 33. “Intermezzo,” her latest novel, is about two brothers grieving
the loss of their father. One is a 22-year-old former chess prodigy who begins a
relationship with an older woman. The other is a 32-year-old lawyer
romantically involved with a younger woman. Critics have largely praised the
book, many highlighting a new maturity in Rooney’s writing.

The change is welcomed by an audience that is growing older alongside her. A

fan, a 28-year-old Instagram book reviewer, told me that she could map her life
onto those of Rooney’s characters. “I love that she’s writing books that I feel like
I can connect with each time she publishes them,” she said.

THE LATEST NEWS

Middle East
In Beirut, Lebanon. Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

The Israeli military struck several targets near Beirut, Lebanon’s capital,
including buildings that it said were used for storing weapons. The
bombardment killed dozens.

Israeli strikes against Hezbollah were once mostly contained to southern

Lebanon. Now residents in and around the capital are coming to terms
 with no longer being spared.

Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday was a

heavy blow. But analysts say it’s too soon the count the group out.

Nasrallah’s death was also a major escalation in Israel’s campaign

against Iranian proxies. Tehran, however, appears to be cautious about
responding.

Israeli strikes killed several Hezbollah leaders in recent weeks. Here’s

who remains.

Major powers have proved incapable of stopping the conflict in the

Middle East. The failure reflects a fragmented global order, Roger Cohen
writes.

More International News

In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party — founded by former SS men in
the 1950s — could come out on top in parliamentary elections today.

At least 104 people have died in Nepal after three days of monsoon rains
caused flooding and landslides.

The poverty rate in Argentina rose in the first six months of Javier
Milei’s presidency, a reflection of his intense austerity program, The A.P.
reports.

2024 Election
Republicans are filing lawsuits challenging voting rules ahead of Election
Day. Experts say the effort could set the stage to contest the results
 should Donald Trump lose.

Trump has been willing to overlook JD Vance’s missteps because of their

unique partnership: Trump views Vance as a kindred political spirit,
while Vance has spoken of Trump as a kind of father figure.

On “Saturday Night Live,” Maya Rudolph returned as Kamala Harris and

Jim Gaffigan made his debut as Tim Walz.

This interactive page lets you decide outcomes in the battleground states
to see how Harris or Trump could win.

More on Politics
In Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Eric Lee/The New York Times

Black churches across the U.S. are struggling to attract younger

congregants. Their absence has consequences for Black political power.

Six people granted clemency by Trump as president have been accused

of another crime.

Prosecutors pursuing corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams

 appear to have solid evidence, experts say. But they also see potential
pitfalls in the case that make additional charges likely.

Hurricane Helene
“This is a disaster”: Western North Carolina is reeling from the
destruction brought by Hurricane Helene. Officials warned of more to
come.

Helene was the strongest storm to ever hit Florida’s Big Bend region. As
it made its way across the Southeast, the storm caused floods and
mudslides, killing at least 60. Read what we know about the damage.

Other Big Stories

 Photo illustration by Ricardo Tomas

America’s conversation about guns often leaves out less direct

consequences of civilian ownership, The Morning’s German Lopez
writes.

SpaceX launched a mission to bring back the astronauts left at the

International Space Station because of issues with Boeing’s Starliner
 spacecraft.

THE SUNDAY DEBATE

Should Democrats end the Senate filibuster, as Harris pledged this

week, to pass a law reinstating abortion protections?

Yes. In addition to helping reinstate abortion protections, ending the filibuster

will make the Senate more productive all around. “If you think that Congress
has a purpose, and that purpose is passing laws, you might want to join Kamala
Harris and Joe Biden in reconsidering aspects of the filibuster,” Jamelle Bouie
writes.

No. The filibuster is an important guardrail against extremism, and Democrats

should consider how the decision to end it might come back to haunt them.
“Imagine the frightening things that could happen when the tables are turned
and Republicans regain power. Gridlock looks a lot more attractive then,” The
Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus writes.

FROM OPINION

Kelly McMasters writes her own obituary every year. It is more comforting
than it is maudlin, she writes.

Here are columns by David French on Iran’s military losses and Ross
Douthat on Harris’s plan for Ukraine.
Readers of The Morning: Don’t miss out on a full year of savings.

From in-depth coverage of Decision 2024 to unlimited news and analysis,

Games, Cooking, The Athletic and more, subscribe now for only $1 a week for
your first year.

MORNING READS
 In Manhattan, New York. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Sushi-Con: The 400-pound star of a Manhattan food expo flew in from Ibiza.

The new old age: Wondering who takes care of the dog after your death?
Think about a legally binding pet trust.

3,600 years old: Cheese dug up with mummified human remains in China
offers insights into the origins of kefir.
Vows: It was risky to hold a wedding in Ukraine. They did it anyway.

Lives Lived: Amadou Mahtar M’Bow was the first Black African to head a
major international organization when he was elected director general of
UNESCO. His tenure was contested and led the United States and Britain to
pull out. He died at 103.

THE INTERVIEW
 John Oliver

By Lulu Garcia-Navarro

This week’s subject for The Interview is John Oliver, whose HBO show “Last
Week Tonight” has been on the air for 10 years. We spoke about why he
doesn’t consider himself a journalist, not giving in to nihilism, and what he’s
learned over a decade of making the show.

It’s funny going back to the first season as a viewer. I found it to be

remarkably similar. There’s a consistency there.

[John Oliver makes a face.]

I mean it as a compliment!

I was literally wincing both inside and outside.

I saw you wincing.

I don’t do many interviews about myself, so I am kind of emotionally in a

defensive position, and I think, unfortunately, it’s translating to my face.
[Laughs.]

It does seem as if you understood what you were up to quite early

on.

I think we learned some big lessons early on. It might have been in the first
season, we did one story called “Prison,” and it was about 16 minutes, and that
seemed like a long time at the time. And I think what we gradually learned was,
it is crazy to try and talk about all the problems with prisons in 16 minutes,
especially if two of those minutes are going to be a song with “Sesame Street”
characters at the end. So, since then, we’ve basically come back and redone that
story in 20 different ways. We’ve talked about prison labor, prison phone calls,
prison recidivism, prison re-entry. There are so many different aspects to
criminal justice. You can’t just slap “prisons” on it and say, “Oh, we’ve done it
now.” I look back at that and do slightly wince.

Read more of the interview here.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
 Photograph by PEDEN+MUNK for The New York Times

Click the cover image above to read Food Voyages, a special edition
of the magazine.
THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Listen to podcasts for word nerds.

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Work from a comfortable office chair.

MEAL PLAN
 Rachel Vanni for The New York Times

In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Margaux Laskey admits that
the kid wrangling, lunch packing and commuting of the back-to-school season
has tired her out. If you’re also feeling lethargic, she offers recipes that you can
eat out of a bowl with a spoon like “a big, overtired baby,” including corn and
cod green curry, mushrooms and dumplings, and tortellini soup.
NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was theology.

Can you put eight historical events — including the near-abolition of the
Electoral College, the creation of purple, and the making of Mario — in
chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and
Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at
[email protected].
Editor: David Leonhardt
Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner
News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti
Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson
News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick,
Ashley Wu
News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar
Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch

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