The Washington Post National Weekly - April 21, 2019

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WEEKLY

THE FIX THE FIX

Where Where contenders’ contenders’ co≠ers co≠ers standstand BY

A ARON B LAKE

BY

A ARON B LAKE

W W

more than just a passing morefancy than in just thea Demopassing fancy in the Democratic field, assuming cratic he canfield, seizeassuming the moment he can seize the moment and build a real presidential and build campaign. a real presidential campaign.

e finally have the first concrete e finally have datathe first concrete data with which to judge the with 2020 which presito judge the 2020 presi3. Trump’s head start 3. Trump’s head start dential contenders: dential fundraising contenders: fundraising Among the many norms Among President the many Trump norms President Trump numbers. numbers. has shed has been thehas oneshed that has saysbeen presidents the one that says presidents The first-quarter reports, The which first-quarter cover monreports, which cover monshould wait until the should presidential wait until election the presidential election ey raised and spent from ey raised January and to spent March, from January to March, cycle to start raising money. cycle toWhile start other raising presimoney. While other presiwere reported early were this week. reported While early we’ve this week. While we’ve dents dating back to dents at least dating Ronald back Reagan to at least Ronald Reagan known about some ofknown the bigabout numbers some thanks of the big numbers thanks decided that fundraising decided could that wait, fundraising Trump could wait, Trump to the campaign announcements, to the campaign the announcements, actual the actual started almost instantly started afteralmost his 2016 instantly win. after his 2016 win. reports provide more reports detail. provide more detail.

And now he has the head Andstart nowtoheprove has the it. He head start to prove it. He Some have wagered Some that these have wagered numbers that these numbers had built up a $19.2 million had built fund upheading a $19.2 million into fund heading into don’t actually matterdon’t post-2016, actually when matter Presipost-2016, when Presi2019, and his campaign 2019, raised andmore his campaign than $30raised more than $30 dent Trump won despite dent being Trumpfarwon outspent. despite being far outspent.

SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES SCOTT OLSON/GETTY million in theIMAGES first quarter. millionHe innow the first has more quarter. He now has more But that’s overly simplistic.

But that’s Money overly isn’t simplistic. the Money isn’t the than $40 million in the than bank. $40 million in the bank. end-all, be-all, but it does end-all, signify be-all, momentum but it does signify momentum Democratic presidential Democratic candidatepresidential Pete candidate Pete ThatU.S. is hardly unheard-of Thatfor is hardly a sitting unheard-of presifor a sitting presiand campaign potency. andItcampaign also helpspotency. candi- It Buttigieg also helpshas candioutraised Buttigieg four sitting has outraised U.S. four sitting Barack Obama dent raised — Barack $46 million Obamainraised $46 million in dates hone and get their datesmessage hone and out. getThey their message They senatorsout. in the first quarter, senators with in the $7.1first million. quarter,dent with — $7.1 million. the first quarter he actively the firstraised quarter money he actively in raised money in would rather have it would than not. rather For have the many it than not. For the many 2011the — but does suggest 2011Trump’s — but it fundraising does suggest Trump’s fundraising tions of less it’s thana $200 tions among of less thethan top candi$200 among topitcandiDemocrats strugglingDemocrats to get noticed, struggling it’s ato get noticed, will be more robust will thanbewhen moreherobust won the than when he won the dates. dates. pretty good gauge of where prettythey goodare gauge at. of where they are at. presidency. presidency.

There is a case to be made There that is he a case wastosimply be made that he was simply Let’s look at a few of the Let’s biggest look at takeaways. a few of the biggest takeaways. reactivating a base that reactivating he alreadya cultivated base that he already cultivated 4. The slow starters4. The slow starters in 2016. But that’s alsoinkind 2016. of But the point: that’s also While kind of the point: While 1. The Bernie base is1.back The Bernie base is back If you had toare pick the If most youunderwhelming had to pick the most underwhelming the dozenwhether or so other the top dozen candidates or so other are top candidates I was one of those who I was questioned one of those whether who questioned numbers in the quarter, it’d in the have first to quarter, be it’d have to be fighting among one fighting another among for their oneown another for their ownfirst numbers Sen. Bernie Sanders would Sen. Bernie be ableSanders to replicate would be able to replicate Gillibrand Gillibrand and Warren. basesPerhaps of support, has one of support, built in, and he has it one built in,and andWarren. it his 2016 momentumhis in 2016 2020.momentum Perhaps that in 2020. that he bases I say Gillibrand because I say it was Gillibrand the lowest because of it was the lowest of gave him a nice head start. gave him a nice head start. success was more about success reservations was moreDemoabout reservations Demoa sitting senator, and because a sitting she senator, has the andNew because she has the New crats had about Hillary crats Clinton. had about Perhaps Hillary the Clinton. Perhaps the York herCity home donor state. base in her home state.

2. Buttigieg-mentum 2. Buttigieg-mentum York City donor base in inclusion of more Sanders-esque inclusion of more opponents Sanders-esque opponents for Warren, As forshe Warren, has been it’s because in she has been in If you(D-Mass.) had said the mayor If you of had South said Bend, the mayor As of South Bend,it’s because such as Sen. Elizabeth such Warren as Sen. (D-Mass.)

Elizabeth Warren the race since Day One the race of thesince firstDay quarter One of the first quarter Ind., would outraise Ind.,sitting wouldU.S. outraise senators four sitting U.S. senators would eat away at Sanders’s would eat base. away Maybe at Sanders’s his base.

Maybe his four the would others) and (unlike has raised the others) such huge and has raised such huge in the notfirst surequarter, who would I’m not(unlike sure who moment had simply passed. moment had simply passed. in the first quarter, I’m a senator. Shesums wound asup a senator. finishing She fifth wound up finishing fifth have believed you. But have that’s believed what happened. you. But that’ssums whatashappened.

But the Vermont independent’s But the Vermont first-quarindependent’s first-quarSanders, behind former Sanders, congressman Harris, former congressman Pete Buttigieg’s $7.1 million Pete Buttigieg’s trumped $7.1 Warren millionbehind trumped WarrenHarris, ter fundraising haulter served fundraising notice that haul he served notice that he ($9.3 Beto million) O’Rourke and Buttigieg. ($9.3 million) and Buttigieg. million), He Minnesota’s ($6 million), Amy Klobuchar Minnesota’s Beto AmyO’Rourke Klobuchar might start this race might as the start front-runner. this race He as the($6 front-runner. spent the most Sheofalso the spent top contenders the most of the top contenders ($5.2 million), New Jersey’s ($5.2 million), Cory Booker New ($5.1 Jersey’s She Coryalso Booker ($5.1 raised more than $18 raised million, moretops thanin$18 the million, tops in the (more than $5.2 million), (more which than $5.2 means million), her which means her New York’s million) Kirsten and Gillibrand New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand Democratic field. He also Democratic had the most field.donors, He also hadmillion) the mostand donors, existing campaign kitty existing is almost campaign entirelykitty left-is almost entirely left($3 million). ($3 million). the lowest average contribution the lowest average and the contribution highand the highover fromcould her Senate over from her Thefrom haul confirmed that TheButtigieg haul confirmed could be that Buttigieg be campaigns. est percentage of his est haul percentage raised from of his donahaul raised donan Senate campaigns. n

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CONTENTS

This publication was prepared This publication by editors was at The prepared by editors at The Washington Post for printing Washington and distribution Post for printing by our and distribution by our partner publications across partner thepublications country. All articles across the andcountry. All articles and columns have previously columns appeared have inpreviously The Post orappeared on in The Post or on POLITICS washingtonpost.com and washingtonpost.com have been edited to and fit have this been edited THE to fitNATION this format. For questions or format. comments For questions regardingorcontent, comments regarding THEcontent, WORLD please e-mail weekly@washpost.com. please e-mail weekly@washpost.com.

If you have a If you COVER have a STORY question about printingquestion quality, wish abouttoprinting subscribe, quality, or wish to subscribe, or TRADITIONS would like to place a hold would on delivery, like to place please a hold contact on delivery, your please contact your BOOKS local newspaper’s circulation local newspaper’s department.circulation department. OPINION © 2019 The Washington Post©/ Year 20195,The No.Washington 28 Post / Year 5, No. 28 FIVE MYTHS

WEEKLYWEEKLY

CONTENTS ON THE COVER Martellus Bennett ON THE COVER Martellus Bennett 4 POLITICS 4 — former former NFL player, andNFL player, author and 8 THE—NATION 8 author creator of the Imagination Agency Agency 10 THEcreator WORLDof the Imagination 10 — at his studio in Los Angeles.

— atSTORY his studio in12 Los Angeles.

12 COVER Photo Photo by IAN MADDOX for Theby IAN MADDOX for The 17 TRADITIONS 17 Washington Post Washington Post18 18 BOOKS 20 OPINION 20 23 FIVE MYTHS 23

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FIVE MYTHS

Psychology BY

S TEPHEN I LARDI

Many of psychology’s concepts and terms have, in recent decades, entered our vernacular. Political pundits speak casually of “confirmation bias” — the way people focus selectively on evidence that backs up their existing beliefs — and many laypeople know the purported role of serotonin in producing a sense of well­being.

Psychological discoveries continue to sharpen and refine our understanding of human suffering and of the human condition more broadly. Nonetheless, many myths about psychology persist.

MYTH NO. 1 We only use 10 percent of our brains.

But neuroscience offers no support for this theory. The brain is a glutton for energy — accounting for about 20 percent of calorie expenditure, despite making up only 2 percent of body mass — and has little tolerance for waste or excess. All 86 billion neurons are programmed to self-destruct if they fail to wire up properly to active, useful circuits. Because such “neural pruning” is relentless and ubiquitous, anyone who used only 10 percent of their neurons would be found in an autopsy to have a dramatically shriveled brain.

(Such cerebral shrinkage is not commonly observed.)

It is now clear that every part of the brain is always on active duty. The typical neuron fires about once every second.

MYTH NO. 2 Talking about your problems always helps.

Talking about painful experiences, however, is not guaranteed to be helpful.

Consider “critical incident stress debriefing,” a group-counseling protocol for people who have witnessed traumatic events. A meta-analysis of all published CISD trials did not find any beneficial effects of the intervention. Some studies have even linked the treatment with worse outcomes, perhaps

because it forces some people to face painful memories before they’re ready.

In an important 2007 paper, “Psychological Treatments That Cause Harm,” Emory University professor Scott Lillienfeld highlighted a growing body of evidence that talk therapy — although helpful for many — can sometimes backfire. About 10 percent of psychotherapy patients get worse during treatment, and only about half get better.

One reason: Many therapists do not use evidence-based techniques and procedures shown to be effective in clinical trials.

MYTH NO. 3 OCD manifests as hyper-organization.

OCD has little to do with neatness, and most sufferers are not particularly tidy or uptight.

Instead, they’re plagued by a cascade of unbidden, disturbing thoughts, often in the form of harrowing images that they may feel compelled to ward off with time-consuming rituals. It’s a serious mental illness that typically causes great distress and functional impairment.

Excessive cleaning is just one possibility in a broad universe of OCD symptoms. A similarsounding diagnosis, obsessivecompulsive personality disorder, truly is characterized by a need to have things well-ordered and “just so.”

DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG

Contrary to the science fiction trope, the typical human brain is not 90 percent dormant. In fact, the average neuron fires once per second.

MYTH NO. 4 Mood swings are the hallmark of bipolar disorder.

Mood swings are not among the disorder’s official diagnostic criteria. Yes, bipolar individuals experience the devastating lows of depression and the extreme highs of mania (or, in some cases, the milder elevation known as hypomania), but such profoundly altered states typically last for weeks or months at a time.

They rarely turn on a dime. And “mood” isn’t always the most serious concern. Bouts of depression commonly bring on crushing fatigue, impenetrable brain fog and searing mental anguish. Mania can induce wildly impulsive, erratic behaviors — reckless promiscuity, disastrous spending sprees, even physical altercations — with suffering and functional impairment in their wake. According to a recent study, most married bipolar patients eventually end up divorced, and more than a third are unable to hold down a steady job. Bipolar disorder is a far more serious condition than the “mood swings” of popular imagination might suggest.

MYTH NO. 5 Medication is the only way to fix a chemical imbalance.

Medicines have a place in the armamentarium of psychiatric treatments, but there are many other ways of changing the brain’s neurochemical profile.

Regular exercise boosts signaling in brain circuits that utilize dopamine and serotonin — neurotransmitters commonly targeted by psychiatric drugs. Exercise also increases neuroplasticity, improves cerebral glucose metabolism and leads to better sleep. What we eat also alters the brain’s “chemical balance.” Nutrition-based interventions — boosting omega-3 fats, magnesium, zinc or soluble plant fiber — have been found to lift symptoms of depression, anxiety and even ADHD. And numerous studies show that psychotherapy, too, can alter brain function for the better. n Ilardi is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kansas.

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OPINIONS

BY STANTIS FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Free our immigration courts DANA LEIGH MARKS has been a sitting immigration judge in San Francisco since 1987 and is writing this in her capacity as president emerita of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

Every day, in 60 courts throughout the country, roughly 400 immigration judges sit to decide the fates of thousands of people. Our courtrooms can be almost anywhere: in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities, in federal courthouses or in leased commercial office spaces — like mine in the heart of the financial district in San Francisco. Walking by, you wouldn’t know what is going on inside.

What occurs in immigration courts is probably the most mysterious of all legal processes in our country. The reason: These are administrative courts, part of the Justice Department rather than the judicial branch. The rules we operate under are written by political appointees, not by judges, and often favor the government.

Our courts’ decisions are lifechanging. We rule on whether a person is a U.S. citizen, whether a noncitizen can qualify for a status that allows him or her to remain in this country, or whether a person has violated our laws and must be forced to leave. Our decisions may cause the separation of families because the law gives judges no discretion to allow someone to remain in our country based solely on hardship or humanitarian reasons. And, at times, the decisions can amount

to a death sentence, such as when we deny an application for asylum because the law does not protect all those who find themselves in harm’s way back home.

Many Americans may be surprised to learn there is no such thing as “anchor babies,” because U.S. citizens must be over 21 years old to sponsor a parent; that marrying a U.S. citizen does not guarantee the spouse U.S. citizenship; or that there is no statute of limitations under our immigration laws, meaning longterm lawful residents can be deported for relatively minor convictions. And that’s true even if the crime occurred decades ago.

People in immigration court proceedings do not have the right to appointed counsel, even if they are minors. Forty percent of people in our courts cannot find lawyers to represent them, and

BY KAL FOR THE BALTIMORE SUN

almost all — about 85 percent — speak a language other than English, making selfrepresentation an insurmountable task. The legal provisions that we apply have been compared to tax law in their complexity and can test even the most experienced attorneys.

Many of the flaws in our operations stem from the fact that we are administrative courts located within a law enforcement agency, so crucial decisions are made by officials with little or no experience as judges. It is time to change that.

The volume of work can be overwhelming. Some of our judges carry caseloads of 5,000 cases or more, usually with limited support staff. Because we work for the Justice Department, we are directed how to arrange our dockets and micromanaged about how much time we spend on cases. Beginning in October of last year, judges were ordered to complete 700 cases each year or risk a less-than-satisfactory performance evaluation, which can cost a judge his or her job.

This is not how a court should be run. Attorney General William P. Barr told Congress this past week that he is hoping to boost the number of judges in our courtrooms from around 425 to 535 over the next few years and

for a commensurate boost in lawyers and clerks. We desperately need the help.

But more than that, we need to be free to be independent judges, not be monitored and rated like assembly-line workers. We must be allowed to use our expertise to decide our cases without interference. The current structure detracts from due process and makes people doubt the fairness of the courts we preside over.

A number of lawyers’ organizations and scholars agree, and endorse the creation of an Article I Immigration Court. It would free our courts from the political influences of both the Justice and Homeland Security departments and the political whims of each new administration. It would allow a reliable funding stream from Congress to assure we have the resources needed to address our burgeoning caseload in a timely manner. It would mean that neutral judges would use their skills to make the rules and assure a level playing field for all.

An independent immigration court will be an efficient and effective court that provides an example to the world of the superiority of the American justice system. We can and must fix this fatal flaw now. n

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TOM TOLES

Our system still has some integrity DAVID IGNATIUS is a columnist for The Washington Post.

P

resident Trump’s conduct in office has been diminishing the moral capital of the United States for more than two years. The report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III released Thursday puts a little of that capital back in the bank.

Mueller’s 448-page account is an affirmation that the rule of law still exists in the United States, despite Trump’s rants and rages against his enemies. Mueller’s decision not to charge Trump with collusion or obstruction of justice remains puzzling, given the evidence he assembled.

But the facts are there, in meticulous detail, for the world to weigh.

The message: Even under intense stress, the American system hasn’t buckled. A prosecutor appointed and overseen by Trump’s Justice Department is still capable of discovering the facts about this president. The FBI and intelligence agencies weathered a Mueller-documented campaign of presidential intimidation. That a coolheaded Mueller didn’t call for legal prosecution, when half the country was calling for Trump’s scalp, in some ways affirms the integrity of the system.

Mueller, in effect, left the final judgments to Congress and the American public. His signature line on obstruction is ambiguous: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does

not exonerate him.” I’m inclined to agree with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that the matter is now best left to the voters in November 2020. Mueller has given the Democrats a rich menu.

Mueller’s report is a win for the slow tortoise of the truth. Trump has been tweeting for many months about the “hoax” of the investigation, and Attorney General William P. Barr continued his pro-Trump spin campaign 90 minutes before the report’s release. But now we have the facts.

The biggest surprise for me was the new evidence of Trump’s Russian connections and his attempts to precook policy toward Moscow, even though Mueller decided they didn’t add up to a conspiracy.

Among the details: Michael Flynn, who would later serve as national security adviser, was tasked by Trump during the campaign to discover damaging details about Hillary Clinton’s emails; following a secret January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between a Trump confidant and a Putin ally, a fivepoint plan was produced for easing pressure on Moscow; an Aug. 2, 2016, meeting between then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an alleged Russian intelligence contact named Konstantin Kilimnik yielded a plan for “backdoor” acceptance of Russian control of eastern Ukraine.

We also learned new details of Trump’s efforts to derail investigations: He instructed then-deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland to write a memo claiming that Trump hadn’t told Flynn to discuss easing sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016; McFarland refused.

Trump told then-White House counsel Donald McGahn to deny reports that he had ignored Trump’s order to fire Mueller; McGahn refused. Small but memorable acts of conscience.

Why do these revelations matter, if the outcome of Mueller’s investigation, almost

certainly, is to spare Trump from indictment or impeachment? It’s because they support the process of law and accountability, which is more fundamental than whether Trump stays or goes as president.

Congress may shy from impeachment; the public may even, inexplicably, decide that Trump deserves a second term.

But the facts will be there for future historians — and for the millions around the world who have worried (or celebrated) that our system is cracking.

Watching Trump, the world has wondered whether the United States has lost its bearings. A prominent Asian analyst said to me weeks ago in Cairo: “America is lost.” A European intelligence official said longtime allies were nearing the point of losing trust in the United States’ reliability.

Even Russia’s president has joined in the schadenfreude, saying the United States is wracked by political crisis.

America’s friends are right to be worried by this president. But they should take some reassurance from the Mueller report, with all its weird halfsteps and unmade judgments. It affirmed that the fundamentals of accountability are still intact despite Trump’s best efforts to rig the system. n

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WORLD

WORLD

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Venezuelans Nothing’s forever, find faith evenasinall Europe else fails

BY A GRELIS RIFF R W. H ITTE ERNÁNDEZ in Paris AND MARIANA ZUÑIGA in Caracas, Venezuela urope tempts the soul with the promise of had the he lights in Petare eternal. gone dark. Again.

Especially to citizens of The people of Venthe New World, old oneslum can ezuela’sthelargest look as if were it wasused chiseled in blackstone to the at thethat dawn outs haltofthetime. flowIts of cathewater, drals, castles, palaces and opera exhaust their supplies of expenhouses formand a sturdy and already permasive candles fray their nent-seeming thin patience. backdrop in a world dominated by But increasingly this would not be like any ephemera.

Thenight Instagram photo other lightless in the hillside from aAmid blue-sky spring day in barrio. the darkened alleyParis might not lastjoyful beyond the ways, a strange, sound next scroll, but the it emerged between thelandscape zinc-roofed captured will endure.jingled, mahomes.

Tambourines The rattled, blaze that ravaged this racas drums throbbed. city’s 856-year-old Dame Voices called all who Notre could hear to Cathedral on Monday punctured salvation. that illusion.

“Cristo sana y salva . . .” 10 memOver course of a few Hearts hours, bers ofthethe Restoring a perfectly of church sang rendered against thetableau darkness. stone and and glass “Christ healswood and saves. . . .” that seemed fixed never-changBuffeted by and political and huing — as familiar ourofgrandmanitarian crises, to one Latin parents asleast it religious would becountries to our America’s grandchildren — was swallowed is turning to faith.

As the political in an inferno of smoke and flame. stalemate between President NiIt Maduro was, the cultural colás andFrench opposition leadhistorian Stéphane Gerson er Juan Guaidó grinds into said anTuesday, “the most poignant reother month, and shortages of minder, in food this brittle age of ours, electricity, and water reduce thattonothing, not eventoour highlife a daily struggle survive, est cultural are leaders across achievements, religious traditions eternal.” are reporting a flood of worshipthe and Europe of 2019, for no ers,For lapsed new, searching reminder was necessary. comfort and answers.

There have been moments “All might my Masses are full, which in never history when before,” Europeans has happened said themselves were seduced by the the Rev. Jesús Godoy, a Catholic promise But this is priest at of theperpetuity.

Good Shepherd parnot one them. district of Caraish in theofChacao politics, democas.InHeEurope’s says he’s seeing more than graphics andeach relations with the 2,000 people weekend. rest of the there is little “They begworld, for help,” Godoy said. these mistak“They days wantthat Godcould to givebethem the en fortostasis. tools live in crisis.”

Each election fresh turIn this deeplybrings polarized counmoil.

Each migrant boatfor careentry, analysts are watching signs ing shorefaithful offers could new that toward this growing questions what emerge as aabout political force.kind of society Europe to be. Each Already therewants are indications: rumble and rip hold in transatlantic Clergy members forth on the ties gives woes reasonin tohomilies ponder and the country’s fine line Churches, between enemy and sermons. synagogues friend. and mosques increase their serTheto the flames licked the vices poor.that Priests and nuns spire NotreforDame, ultiattendofrallies Guaidóand in their mately clerical brought dress. it crashing down,

E T

PHOTOS BY ANDREA HERNANDEZ CHRISTOPHE FOR THE WASHINGTON PETIT TESSON/AP POST

Notre As crisis Dame drags inferno on, analysts is reminder watch that forthe signs continent that growing is alwaysgroup fallingcould apartemerge — and also as abeing political rebuilt force were “Tojust be athe spiritual most vivid actorillustrain Vention ezuelaoftoday a truth is toEuropeans express solidarihave come ty withtopeople know that through are suffering hard experience: and feelingThe powerless,” continent saidisGeoff forever Ramsey, falling assistant apart.director And it’sfor forever Venbeing ezuelarebuilt. for the Washington Office onThat Latinrecognition America. “That helpsinexplain and of why itself the is a political mood inact.”

Paris this past week But an wasorganized, far fromfaith-based despondent, movement even in though response thetocity thehad powatched litical impasse in horror between as its Maduro beating heart and Guaidó burned.has yet to emerge.

Analysts President say they Emmanuel see no evidence Macron hadn’t Maduroeven is more waited concerned for the by flames relito gious stop leaders their or groups spread than Monday he is night by general before opposition declaringtothat his rule.

Notre Dame Venezuela’s would besocialist rebuilt. government “Of has course a complicated it will be,” history said Benjamin with faith. Mouton.

That Hugo Chávez, response who was launched typical the Tuesday revolution of two the Parisian decades take. ago, saw But Mouton potential in is using hardly Christianity the typical as a Parisian. tool of the state, and he invoked its imagery He was aschief part architect of his appeal. at Notre Dame Earlyfor on, 13 some years religious and leaders knows every were open inch.toHe his knows promisethat to iman extraordinary prove the livestrove of theofpoor. construcNow, tion manyplans are critical. and measurements are

onThe file Pentecostal and can be televangelist accessed in service Javier Bertucci, of a reconstruction. who leads Hea also 16,000-member knows that the megachurch cathedral so in fixed Valencia, in the ran popular for president imagination last is year a relatively as an alternative modern iteration to both of the Maduro ancient andstructure. the opposition — and managed Through nearly the1 million centuries, votes.it’s been Venezuela’s updated, amended, Catholic Church, degraded the and largest defiled. and The mostspire powerful that crashed faith group so spectacularly here, has beenon vocal Monin day opposing was added Maduro. relatively recently, Godoy just a helps century connect and apeople half ago, on after the streets a period withof jobs, profound housing, neglect. food, social workers and psychologists.

What Hewill seesfollow his ministry now, Mouton as an said, essentially is a painstaking political project. restoration.

It will “We take comfort a year them, or but twowe justalso to conduct must denounce studies evil and when make awe plan. see No it,” one he said. knows “We how cannot many be years an the accomplice work itself to injustice.” will last.

“It’s In this not South necessary American to country go too fast,” of 30 million, he said. signs of collapse are everywhere.

Macron on Children Tuesday andevening adults said pick food he hoped out of rotting the cathedral garbage would heaps. Hospitals be reconstructed ask patients within to five buy years. and bring their own IV bags and “Throughout gloves to surgery. our history, Teenagers we have been built shot cities, to ports, death churchin their

The A woman sceneseeks inside treatment Notre Dame with the spiritualistinElParis cathedral Guayanés after Monday’s in the lowincome Firefighters inferno. neighborhood battled for more of Petare than 12in hours Caracas, to Venezuela.the extinguish As the blaze nation’s that claimed political the stalemate grinds cathedral’s spire and on, and shortages roof, but spared ofits electricity, bell towers.food and water have become a daily struggle, religious leaders are reporting a flood of worshipers searching for comfort and answers.

es,” hebytold homes masked themen. nation The counin a try is divided televised address. and deadlocked.

“Many have Maduro claimed burned or been victory destroyed, in elections by last year wars, revolutions, widely viewed the asmistakes fraudulent.men. of Guaidó Each declared time, himself we have interim president in January. rebuilt.”

Leidy Villegas With all the says money her raised, Christian faithGalle Laurent helps was her confront sure thatrealithe ty. She can building could barely be afford restored food to for its her family former glory. and can’t find clean water When every he day. sawBut Notre the Dame idea that in there is on flames something television bigger Monday and more powerful night, he despaired. than her But country’s seeing crisisbuilding the drove her fortohimself sing with — her the churchexterior stone in Petare. blackened but still very “Wemuch foundintact happiness — gave for a him few hours and went home joyful,” the hope.

34-year-old The surprise mother for Galle of four wassaid. not “We Notre that even forgot Dameabout had caught the blackfire. outwas It for athat while.such a calamitous blaze “Wehadn’t know worse occurred daysbefore are comin ing ournine nearly way,centuries but just like of history. we did that Elsewhere day, we always in Europe, find refuge there in God’s more were glory,”attempts she said. to keep the fireVillegas in perspective holds on to — one andparticuto give lar promise: lovers of Notre GodDame will provide. hope that theEight fire months was little ago more she was than preg-a nant with her temporary setback fourth in achild, long hisbut complications tory that still has required many chapters a risky early yet to delivery. go.

With shortages in medical “It’s not supplies, the end her ofdoctors the world,” told her to buy Council European pricey, hard-to-find President drugs she Donald Tusk could told notreporters. afford.

Shenoted He burstthat into90 tears. percent Herof faith his waned. city — Then Gdansk, she Poland started to — pray. was Within minutes, destroyed in thesomeone Second donatWorld ed what War. And she still needed the city to deliver had been her son, Diogber. rebuilt.

SheGermany, In thumbed the such yellowed storiespagare es of her worn common.

So much Bible of and the pointed country to Psalmleveled was 91.

by Allied bombing and “Here street-to-street God promises mecombat. that he will bewas Much with lostme forever. in times But of much anguish,” was also she reborn. said.

Villegas and Dresden — firebombed others say they bedon’t waste yond all recognition time blaming in political 1945 — figuresboasts today for Venezuela’s a skylineturmoil. punctuated Gladys

by Gothic Torres, spires73, restored had never decbeen after ades to a spiritualist. the damage.

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TRADITIONS

KLMNO WEEKLY

Funerals? They’re no longer so grave.

BY

K AREN H ELLER

ing favorite vacation idylls as final resting spots. Captain Ken Middleton’s Hawaii Ash Scatterings performs 600 cremains dispersals a year for as many as 80 passengers on cruises that may feature a ukulele player, a conchshell blower and releases of white doves or monarch butterflies.

“It makes it a celebration of life and not such a morbid affair,” says Middleton. His service is experiencing annual growth of 15 to 20 percent.

D

ayna West knows how to throw a fabulous memorial shindig. She hired Los Angeles celebrationof-life planner Alison Bossert — yes, those now exist — to create what West dubbed “Memorialpalooza” for her father, Howard, in 2016 a few months after his death.

“None of us is going to get out of this alive,” says Bossert, who helms Final Bow Productions.

“We can’t control how or when we die, but we can say how we want to be remembered.”

And how Howard was remembered! There was a crowd of more than 300 on the Sony Pictures Studios. A hot-dog cart from the famed L.A. stand Pink’s. Gift bags, the hit being a baseball cap inscribed with “Life’s not fair, get over it” (a beloved Howardism). A constellation of speakers, with Jerry Seinfeld as the closer (Howard was his personal manager).

And babka (a tribute to a favorite “Seinfeld” episode).

“My dad never followed rules,” says West, 56, a Bay Area clinical psychologist. So why would his memorial service?

Death is a given, but not the time-honored rituals. An increasingly secular, nomadic and casual America is shredding the rules about how to commemorate death, and it’s not just among the wealthy and famous. Somber, embalmed-body funerals, with their $9,000 industry average price tag, are, for many families, a relic.

Instead, end-of-life ceremonies are being personalized: golfcourse cocktail send-offs, backyard potluck memorials, more Sinatra and Clapton, less “Ave Maria,” more Hawaiian shirts, fewer dark suits. Families want to put the “fun” in funerals.

Funeral homes adapt More than half of all American deaths lead to cremations, compared to 28 percent in 2002, due to expense (they can cost a third the price of a burial), the environment, and family members living far apart with less ability to visit cemetery plots, according

SPIKE MAFFORD

The industry adapts as memorials turn from solemn affairs to creative celebrations to the National Funeral Directors Association. By 2035, the cremation rate is projected to be a staggering 80 percent, the association says. And cremation frees loved ones to stage a memorial anywhere, at any time, and to store or scatter ashes as they please. (Maintenance of cemeteries, if families stop using them, may become a preservation and financial problem.)

Past funeral association president Mark Musgrove, who runs a network of funeral homes and chapels in Eugene, Ore., says his industry, already marked by consolidation, is adapting to changing demands.

“Services are more life-centered, around the person’s personality, likes and dislikes.

They’re unique and not standardized,” he says. “The only way we can survive is to provide the services that families find meaningful.”

Funeral homes have hired event planners, remodeled drab parlors to include dance floors

and lounge areas, acquired liquor licenses to replace the traditional vat of industrial-strength coffee.

In Oregon, where cremation rates are near 80 percent, Musgrove has organized memorial celebrations at golf courses and Autzen Stadium, home of the Ducks. He sells urns that resemble giant golf balls and styles adorned with the University of Oregon logo.

Change has sparked nascent death-related industries in a culture long besotted with youth.

There are death cafes (to discuss life’s last chapter over cake and tea), death celebrants (officiants who lead end-of-life events), living funerals (attended by the honored while still breathing), and end-of-life workshops (for the healthy who think ahead). The Internet allows lives to continue indefinitely in memorial Facebook pages, tribute vlogs on YouTube and instamemorials on Instagram.

Memorials are no longer strictly local events. As with weddings and birthdays, families are choos-

At a 2016 celebration in California of Howard West’s life, one of the talent agent’s favorite sayings, “It’s a wrap!,” was on a marquee.

Opening the conversation Death has inspired Etsy-like enterprises that transform a loved one’s ashes into vinyl, “diamonds,” jewelry and tattoos. Ashes to ashes, dust to art.

After Seattle artist Briar Bates died in 2017 at age 42, four dozen friends performed her joyous water ballet in a public wading pool, “a fantastic incarnation of Briar’s spirit,” says friend Carey Christie. “Anything other than denial that you’re going to die is a healthy step in our culture.”

Funeral consultant Elizabeth Meyer wrote the memoir “Good Mourning” and named her website Funeral Guru Liz. Her motto: “Bringing Death to Life.” She notes, “Most people do not plan.

What’s changing is more people are talking about it, and the openness of the conversation. Our world will be a better place when people let their wishes be known.”

In 2012, Amy Pickard’s mother “died out of the blue.” She was unprepared but also transformed. Now, she’s “the death girl,” an advocate for the “deathpositive movement,” sporting a “Life is a near-death experience” T-shirt, teaching people how to plan by hosting monthly Good to Go parties in Los Angeles and offering a $60 “Departure File,” 50 pages to address almost every need.

“We’re still in the really early days of super-creative funerals.

There’s this censorship of death and grief,” Pickard says. “You have the rest of your life to be sad over the person who died. The hope is to celebrate their time on Earth and who they were.” n

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POLITICS

A portrait of paranoia, lies and fear Report shows Trump pressured aides, but they refused to carry out some orders

OLIVER CONTRERAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

B Y P HILIP R UCKER AND R OBERT C OSTA

T

he moment President Trump learned two years ago that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate Russian election interference, he declared in the Oval Office, “This is the end of my presidency.”

Trump nearly made that a selffulfilling prophecy as he then plotted for months to thwart the probe, spawning a culture of corruption and deception inside the White House.

Trump’s advisers rarely challenged him and often willingly did his bidding, according to the special counsel’s report released Thursday. But in some cases, they refused when Trump pushed them to the brink of committing outright crimes — a pattern of inac-

tion that ended up protecting the president.

Trump ordered Donald McGahn to instigate special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s firing, but the White House lawyer decided he would resign rather than follow through.

Trump urged Corey Lewandowski to ask then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to curtail the investigation, but his former campaign manager only delivered the message to an intermediary.

And Trump demanded that Reince Priebus procure Sessions’s resignation, but the White House chief of staff did not carry out the directive.

The vivid portrait that emerges from Mueller’s 448-page report is of a presidency plagued by paranoia, insecurity and scheming — and of an inner circle gripped by fear of Trump’s spasms.

Again and again, Trump frantically pressured his aides to lie to the public, deny true news stories and fabricate a false record. But their unwillingness to execute his most drastic wishes were part of what kept Mueller from making a determination about obstruction of justice.

“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” the report says.

“Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

While many of the episodes catalogued have previously been explored in first-person accounts and news reports, Mueller’s report is singular for its definitive examination of the events — and will not easily be dismissed by Trump and his aides as “fake news.” The main

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report says President Trump, seen Thursday, repeatedly pressured aides to lie to the public, deny true news stories and fabricate a false record.

actors are under oath and on the record, and the narrative they laid bare stands as a historical product with the imprimatur of a former FBI director who attained a cult status for his impartiality.

The political impact remains unsettled. Republicans were eager to turn the page Thursday, echoing the refrain of Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr: “No collusion.” But Democratic leaders insisted that Trump’s conduct amounted to obstruction of justice and necessitated further inquiry, including calling on Mueller to testify before Congress.

Regardless, the Mueller report revealed how a combustible president bred an atmosphere of chaos, dishonesty and malfeasance at the top echelons of government not seen since the Nixon administration.

Trump officials frequently were

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POLITICS drawn into the president’s plans to craft false story lines. In one instance, while he was watching Fox News, Trump asked Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to hold a news conference and claim that Trump fired James B. Comey as FBI director based on Rosenstein’s recommendation. Rosenstein declined and told Trump that he would tell the truth — that firing Comey was not his idea — if he were asked about it.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders attempted to buttress Trump’s cover story. She said at a news briefing that countless members of the FBI were seeking Comey’s removal, but she later admitted to Mueller’s team that her comment had been completely fabricated, calling it a “slip of the tongue” that was not founded on evidence.

In another example, Trump dictated to communications director Hope Hicks an intentionally misleading statement for the media about Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.

President Trump’s drumbeat to end the investigation was driven by his belief that the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusive determination of Russian interference threatened the legitimacy of his election. It was, as Hicks told Mueller’s investigators, his “Achilles’ heel.”

The report exhaustively documents the fraught relationship between Trump and McGahn. In the weeks after Mueller’s May 2017 appointment, Trump repeatedly considered firing the special counsel. On June 17, Trump was at Camp David and twice called McGahn at home and directed him to call Rosenstein, who supervised the probe, and explain that Mueller had conflicts of interest and could not serve.

“You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod,” Trump said on the first call, according to the account McGahn gave investigators.

McGahn did not act on the request, but Trump called a second time.

“Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the special counsel,” Trump said, according to McGahn. The president told him, “Mueller has to go” and “Call me back when you do it.”

McGahn told investigators that he felt trapped and decided to resign. He drove to the office to

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

pack up his belongings and prepare to submit a resignation letter.

He also called Priebus and chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon and told them of his intentions, but they urged him to stay, and McGahn returned to work that Monday.

Trump’s claim that Mueller had “conflicts” — a dispute over membership fees at a Trump golf course in Virginia — was called “ridiculous” by Bannon and “silly” by McGahn. The report is peppered with similar times of aides grousing behind Trump’s back about his tirades and impulsive directives.

Seven months later, after the New York Times reported that Trump had ordered McGahn to have Mueller fired and that McGahn had refused, Trump instructed the White House counsel to deny it — but McGahn said he would not rebut the article.

The president was furious. Staff secretary Rob Porter told investigators that Trump told him the story was “bulls---” and that McGahn was “a lying b-----d.” Trump directed Porter to tell McGahn to create a written record stating that the president never directed the White House counsel to fire Mueller.

“If he doesn’t write a letter, then maybe I’ll have to get rid of him,” Porter recalled Trump telling him.

The next day, Trump met with McGahn to discuss the article. The president insisted he never told McGahn to “fire” Mueller, but McGahn said that he had told him, “Mueller has to go.” Trump then

harangued McGahn about there being a record of their discussions.

“Why do you take notes? Lawyers don’t take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes,” Trump told McGahn, according to McGahn’s account to investigators.

McGahn responded that he was a “real lawyer.”

“I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes,” Trump replied, referencing a former lawyer and mentor who was disbarred for unethical conduct.

In the meantime, as Trump’s unhappiness with Sessions lingered into the summer of 2017, he tried several times to push the attorney general to either step down or limit the scope of the probe.

In between bursts of angry tweets about Sessions that June, he told Lewandowski he had a mission for him.

“Write this down,” Trump instructed his former campaign manager, who is described in the report by Trump officials as a “devotee” who would do almost anything for the president.

Trump told Lewandowski to quietly approach Sessions, far outside of the usual chain of command, and suggest that the president would prefer that the Justice Department investigate only foreign interference in “future elections” — and to stop its probe of the 2016 campaign.

Lewandowski never delivered that message directly, reflecting his unease with the president’s

According to the report, Trump at one point ordered thenWhite House lawyer Donald McGahn, seen in 2018, to instigate the firing of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, but McGahn was prepared to resign rather than follow through.

KLMNO WEEKLY

request. He instead turned to Rick Dearborn, a veteran Sessions aide then working as a deputy White House chief of staff, to take the message to the attorney general.

Dearborn, too, declined to do so, later telling investigators that the idea of being a messenger to Sessions made him uncomfortable.

Trump tried other ways to remove Sessions. In early July 2017, he asked Porter whether Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand was “on the team” and instructed him to sound her out about taking over responsibility for the Mueller probe and becoming attorney general.

Porter told investigators that he understood Trump to want to find someone to end the investigation and did not contact her because he was uncomfortable with the task.

That same month, after The Washington Post reported that U.S. intelligence intercepts showed Sessions had discussed Trump-campaign-related matters with the Russian ambassador, Trump erupted and demanded the attorney general’s resignation.

Trump told Priebus that he needed “a letter of resignation on [his] desk immediately,” according to the account Priebus gave investigators. He said the attorney general had “no choice” and “must immediately resign.”

Trump said Sessions had to resign because of negative publicity, but Priebus told investigators he believed the president was driven because of his hatred over Sessions’s recusal from the Russia investigation. Priebus consulted McGahn and they discussed the possibility that they would both resign rather than carry out Trump’s order to fire Sessions, according to Mueller’s testimony.

The president followed up: “Did you get it?” he asked Priebus. “Are you working on it?”

Priebus explained that firing Sessions would be a calamity, and Trump agreed to hold off and eventually relented, although he tweeted for the next several days about the attorney general, including calling him “beleaguered.”

Sessions stayed on the job until November 2018, but his experience was reflective of the torment caused by Trump.

The attorney general’s chief of staff told investigators that after the president tried to oust him in July 2017, Sessions carried a resignation letter in his pocket every time he went to the White House. n

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Jason Reynolds in the library of his Northeast Washington home.

ANDRE CHUNG FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

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S

tuffed closets. Dangerous junk drawers.

Crowded cabinets. Bloated bookshelves.

All have come under the gaze of Marie Kondo and her legions of foldingfrenzied fans. But none hit a nerve quite like the bookshelf. On an episode of her smash-hit Netflix special, Kondo advised a couple to edit their shelves, maybe get rid of a few. The Internet did what it does best: It went bananas.

How dare she come for books! #TeamClutter, meet #TeamCensorship. Of course, there was a backlash to the backlash, with the expected explanation from Kondo that not all books have to go. ¶ The visceral reaction, even without the social media hyperbole, was hard to ignore.

Books are more than objects. They are filled with ideas, stories, versions of ourselves, memories. Bookshelves are like your wardrobe: They send a message. And the message these famous book lovers shared with us is loud and clear: Books spark joy. These interviews have been edited and condensed.

These Books Spark Joy INTERVIEWS BY AMANDA LONG

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KLMNO WEEKLY

COVER STORY people who have made a way for me have done. It always seems to work.

I have a side table where I keep whatever I’m thinking about reading next. I can’t put them on the shelf or I’ll forget about them. Right now it’s Eileen Myles’s “Afterglow,” about her dog; “Tyrant,” which breaks down all the politics in Shakespeare; and “The World According to Fannie Davis,” which is about Bridgett Davis’s mom, who was a numbers runner in Detroit. Under there, I keep Bauman Rare Books catalogues, because I’m a huge rare-books nerd.

On the coffee table at the moment are coffee table books: “The History of Rap,” the book “Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan,” which I’m thankfully featured in. And then these two large-format photo journals, one from Iran and one about Hong Kong.

There’s always something on the kitchen counter, usually whatever was just in my bag. There’s Marlon James’s “Black Leopard, Red Wolf.” I had gone to a reading Marlon did in D.C. And then there’s the book I’ve read about 50 times: “Another Brooklyn,” by Jacqueline Woodson. I’m still trying to figure out how she wrote a book that spans 25 years in only 25,000 words.

My office is just books everywhere. There is no order.

There is no rhyme or reason. They’re every which way.

There are picture books, an old Scrabble board, cookbooks, typewriters, newspapers that have stories that I’m inspired by, fan art that I’ve framed, stickers and finger puppets that kids have given me. I’ve got Spider-Man toys given to me by Marvel, my own books. I should be more organized, but I’m not an organized person. It’s a good example of how my mind works.

The only time I get rid of books is when I have multiples. I send them to schools and to people who need them. I know people say, “What’s the point in keeping them if you’ve already read them?” But they’re reference.

This is my craft. These are my tools. That would be like the construction worker saying he has too many hammers.

CHRIS SORENSEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Above: Best-selling author Jane Green at home in Westport, Conn.

Opposite page: Pulitzer-Prizewinning novelist Andrew Sean Greer in his San Francisco home.

Page 16: Carla D. Hayden, the 14th Librarian of Congress, at home in Baltimore.

Jason Reynolds Best­selling young­adult author, Newbery Honor winner / Photograph on Page 12

As soon as you walk in the door, there is a shelf with at least 12 art books: Egon Schiele, Mark Rothko, Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Paul Klee. Above that are my most prized books. I have a first-edition signed Toni Morrison “Beloved.” I have Langston Hughes’s “Montage of a Dream Deferred.” I have Claude Brown’s “Manchild in the Promised Land,” first-edition James Baldwins, firstedition Richard Wrights, old black folk-tale books from Julius Lester, Countee Cullen, all kinds of very rare books.

I’m only really careful with the Langston Hughes because it’s so rare and so fragile. Books are to be handled; even though I love them and they are prized possessions, I don’t want to glass-case them. I just can’t see myself hiding things that I consider art.

I pick them up all the time. There are moments when I’m in my office and those books in there don’t always do it, so I need to shake loose. I go up to the front of the house and pull out Jamaica Kincaid’s short stories, or some of the old Baldwin stuff and just poke around and see what my ancestors and the

Jane Green Best­selling author who traded England for New England

I’ve run out of space. Books are starting to get stacked up on the floor, underneath tables, underneath chairs, on top of tables. They’re everywhere. With no more room on the bookshelves, I’ve been eyeing this gorgeous French armoire that takes up an entire wall.

That wall is just perfect for shelves and would make the room warmer. I know, however, that my husband really likes the armoire. He sees: storage, storage, storage. I see: books, books, books. We’ll see who wins.

For years, I couldn’t get rid of anything. I have had to learn to manage the flow. Paperbacks I tend not to keep unless I love them and know I’m going to reread them. Hardcovers are really hard for me to get rid of.

They all signify a time in my life. They all have stories around the stories. I will sometimes just stand there and look at my books and remember.

The first place I go in someone’s house is their bookshelves. You can tell exactly who they are.

I used to do something that I now realize was a bit creepy. After my first book was published and very successful, I was looking for a flat in London. Almost every flat I went into had my book on the shelf. I’d take

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COVER STORY it down and sign it! Sometimes, I even personalized it: “To Julia, with love, Jane Green.” I’ve never heard from anyone, but if they ever come across that, they’ll likely freak out.

Last summer, I started a little mobile library called the Remarkable Bookcycle. For 35 years, there was a bright pink bookstore in my town called Remarkable Book Shop. We had this cargo tricycle just sitting in our garage. I paid a high school student to turn it into a mobile free library. We cycle it around the beach in summer. I lurk around the bookcycle; I love to watch what happens. What’s extraordinary is that everyone gathers around the bookcycle and has conversations.

I’m now able to get rid of books much more easily knowing they’re going to a good home.

I think I like to be surrounded by books when I’m writing, but the truth is I don’t. I’m easily distracted.

I’ve done my best writing at my local public library in one of those little cubbies with noise-canceling headphones. If I need to do some research, I just make a note for later. If I go to a book or online, the whole day could be gone. Writing takes focus, and books pull mine in a million directions.

I subscribe to Nancy Lancaster’s rule of decorating; she’s an American decorator who moved to England in the ’20s. She brought the English country-house style into the mainstream. Her rules were that a home should always have books, candles and flowers. I walk into so many houses today that have been decorated.

They’re exquisite. I find them beautiful: two artfully placed objects, stunning coffee table books. For a minute, I think, “I wish my house looked like this.” But then I remember I don’t feel like taking off my shoes and curling up on the sofa in these homes. In fact, I sit there terrified I’m going to spill red wine. A home needs a bit of curated clutter, and that curated clutter has to include things that tell the story of your life, of what you love. For me, that’s books.

I organize by ideas. If I’m writing about dinosaurs, I’ll have every single book about dinosaurs already in the same section — children’s books, history books, comic books. For me, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” are together because they’re both about traveling through another universe, finding another world.

I like to have a book in my hand. It’s motivating when you can look back and see how much you’ve already read, how many pages are behind you. It’s like running: If you can look back and see how far you’ve come, you’re inspired to keep on going. That’s why e-readers are hard.

I tried, but I like to feel things. I like to look around me and see all the books, all the possibilities. I don’t ever want to be the smartest person in the room. As long as I have books around me, I won’t be.

KLMNO WEEKLY

Andrew Sean Greer Author and 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner

It’s a mess. Finally, they’re built in. After years having books hanging out all over the place, I finally hired someone to build shelves. And at first, I thought, “Oh, I have so much space,” but they’ve gotten out of control.

I’ve been traveling so much that I haven’t had time to tend to them. They just seem to gather.

I don’t aim for perfection. My method is I alphabetize, but it just has to be within the letter. I don’t go Chabon, Cunningham — no, no no. No. Close enough works. I did work at a bookstore, but I struggled with Gabriel García Márquez. I didn’t understand — is he in the G’s or the

Martellus Bennett Former NFL player, author and creator of the Imagination Agency / Photograph on the cover

I have a couple thousand books now, so I had to take my library out of the house and into my studio. But we still have books all over the house. I like to stack them on the floor, use them as decoration, put them on a coffee table.

I like them within reach. When you’re surrounded by them, you’re more inspired to pick them up. We’re in a new house and even my wife said, “I kind of miss the books. Where are we going to put them?”

I was like, “I thought you’d never ask.” I plan on building a library in the house so my daughter can be surrounded by them. I want shelves on the staircase, too, so you’re reminded to read every time you walk up and down. When you’re surrounded by books it reminds you of what you don’t know.

Whenever I start a project, I start with books. I don’t go to the Internet. On the Internet, algorithms are the new librarian. And you can pay the algorithm to offer up certain content. That’s why everything starts to feel the same, because we’re all going to the same source. I want to find my own result. I look at every book as a conversation. I may never get to meet that person or talk to them, but I can still learn so much from them through their books.

JESSICA CHOU FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

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KLMNO WEEKLY

COVER STORY

M’s? But here I am, Andrew Sean Greer, and I find myself in foreign libraries shelved under S. Serves me right.

I have art with the books, in front of them, all over the place. And there’s a ukulele up there. I could get the place into shape and it would look lived-in and adorable, but I just haven’t. It’s funny, I have friends who are designers and I ask them: What do you think I should do with my house? They say: “First of all, you need to get doors to cover over the bookshelves so they’re not visible!” It bothers them so much. They find bookshelves so chaotic.

As much as I love books, I’m not that fetishistic about them. I have a copy of “Rebecca” that Jonathan Lethem gave me from his bookstore in Maine. It’s a beautiful edition, and I don’t want to loan that to anyone. It’s touching to me. I love that edition, that particular book.

But most other books, I don’t feel that way. Maybe that’s why I am able to sell them.

I told this to a friend recently, and he was just appalled that I would ever get rid of any book. You know the books you still want, and you know the ones that are just never gonna happen. It doesn’t call to you. You just send those off to Dog Eared Books.

I absolutely look at people’s bookshelves. And I have some judgment. I mean, they’re openly showing you themselves. If it’s a summer house, I don’t judge because they just brought over extra books — they’re not serious. But if it’s all business-motivational, “Who Moved My Cheese?” kind of books, I’m like: Oh God, who is this person?

Mine feels very personal. It’s very me. It’s childish; it has kooky things all over it. Here’s an example. After I won the Pulitzer Prize, my friend threw me a party, and I still have the sign that was on his door: “Pulitzer Prize winner this way! Welcome to the party!” That’s been on my bookshelf ever since. Does it really belong on my bookshelf? I don’t know. But it’s sweet, and that’s why it’s there.

Carla D. Hayden Librarian of Congress

You can imagine this is something I love to talk about, but I also do so with trepidation. I’m someone who has books all over the house. I appreciate Marie Kondo, her philosophy about holding on to only the things that spark joy, but every single one of these books sparks joy. I feel good just looking at them. So by her standards, I’m doing okay. What 30 books does Ms. Kondo keep? Are they the same books or does she rotate them? I’d be fascinated to know.

My books are an integral part of my decor. They have to be, because I’m not hiding them. There are books about decorating with books — putting baskets on them, creating montages, stacking them like wallpaper. There are ways to make room for more books and still have room to live. You do have to have some boundaries, so no books in the bathroom.

In the TV room, there are books linked to entertainment, comedians, Bette Davis — I love Bette Davis. And I have my little figurines from “The Big Bang Theory” on the shelves. By the CD player — yeah, I still have a CD player — those are books about music and musicians. In the living room, it’s more history, art, travel. In the kitchen-pantry area: my Julia Child collection, B.

JOSHUA YOSPYN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Smith’s books about entertaining, all those “Why French Women Don’t Get Fat”-type books and cookbooks, though I don’t cook much. I mean, I even have books about cookbooks. I have books about books!

In my dressing area, I’m surrounded by books about fashion. I have an aspirational section, dealing with exercise and weight loss, all kinds of diet books — seldom used, but they are there, just waiting for me to be inspired.

I have baskets of books in the guest room for the taking. That’s where I put my mysteries and books of the moment — books that everyone was talking about and you just had to have. I love mysteries and can consume an entire series, but I don’t need to keep them forever. They’re like candy — good for sharing.

I do not loan books. I’d rather just buy you your own

copy. I learned that lesson early on and had to toughen up. When you give a book to someone, they might not feel the same way about it that you do. It’s just a book that piqued their interest. They don’t treat it like you do.

And you don’t realize how much it meant until you don’t get it back.

I do keep a few books closer to me, hidden but in reach. Let’s just say the guest room is not where I keep my signed copy of “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

I remember early on, in my first apartment, I was a little concerned. I was dating, and looked around and thought, “Hmm, there really are a lot of books in here.”

That’s when I got the best advice I was ever given: If the person you are thinking about dating comes over and sees a lot of books and that’s not a good sign for them, that tells you something. n

15 SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2019

SUNDAY, April, 21, 2019 18

KLMNO WEEKLY

BOOKS

Delusions of a soldier — and an army N ONFICTION

l

REVIEWED BY

E LLIOT A CKERMAN

I AMERICAN CIPHER Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan

By Matt Farwell and Michael Ames Penguin Press. 388 pp. $28

n the years since Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl walked off his platoon’s base in eastern Afghanistan in the early hours of June 30, 2009, he has become many things to many people, from a conscience-driven whistleblower to a traitorous Taliban collaborator. What would compel a 23-year-old soldier to leave his weapon behind and wander off into hostile territory with nothing more than some water, food, a compass and $300 in cash? The compelling new book “American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan” by Matt Farwell and Michael Ames attempts to answer these questions or at least to place a framework around them.

In “American Cipher,” Farwell and Ames tell Bergdahl’s story alongside a history of the Afghan war. A deft move, as it is impossible to understand Bergdahl’s actions outside a deeper contextualization of that conflict, with its many contradictions. That is because the arc of Bergdahl’s story draws such strong parallels with the American experience in Afghanistan. Which leads to the bitterest irony of all — particularly among many veterans — that the most iconic figure of the war in Afghanistan, a war deserted by many Americans, is in fact a deserter himself.

Within a month of arriving in Afghanistan, Bergdahl had become disillusioned. “The war he had been sold was a lie, he thought, a con spun from the desire in the American heart to spread freedom and liberate the tyrannized peoples of the world,” the authors write. “This wasn’t the war story Bergdahl had written for himself, so he decided to write his own.” Having chosen to take matters into his own hands, Bergdahl became convinced that he needed to address his grievances to at least a general officer.

His plan — he claimed — was to walk 18 miles from his small com-

(AP PHOTO/TED RICHARDSON, FILE)

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl arrives for a pretrial hearing in 2016.

bat outpost to the nearest large base, where, after having instigated the crisis of a soldier “missing in action,” he would become his command’s savior by appearing and, thus, be granted the audience he desired. “They might think he was crazy,” Farwell and Ames write, parsing Bergdahl’s logic, “but they would respect what he’d done and hear his concerns.” But instead Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and held in captivity for five years. After his release, he said of his mental state when he walked away from his platoon’s base: “Happily with my ignorance, from a young man’s mind and my imagination, I came up with a fantastic plan.”

Delusion factors heavily into Bergdahl’s understanding of his actions. At his court-martial, his defense team diagnosed him as schizotypal. Unlike schizophrenics, schizotypal patients don’t suffer from complete breaks with reality but often become lost in their own fantasies. If Bergdahl suffered the delusion of believing he could become a savior by solving a crisis of his own making, the case is artfully made in “American

Cipher” that America itself is a schizotypal, that we became lost in our own fantasies for Afghanistan, in which we could deliver the Afghan people from a crisis we created.

In “American Cipher” the specific facts of Bergdahl’s case are elevated to the allegorical, and this is where Farwell and Ames’s storytelling really shines. The U.S. government’s interdepartmental dysfunction when negotiating with the Haqqani network, which was holding Bergdahl, mirrors the government’s dysfunction in nascent Taliban peace talks brokered by then-special envoy Richard Holbrooke. The dysfunctional recruiting process of an overextended U.S. military mirrors the specifics of Bergdahl’s recruitment into the Army, even though the government knew of his psychological issues. And when Bergdahl deserts, the dysfunction of the military’s counterinsurgency strategy mirrors the dysfunction of U.S. attempts to elicit intelligence about Bergdahl from a distrustful Afghan population.

The parallels go depressingly on. Farwell and Ames convincing-

ly show that so many of the reasons we’ve been fighting in Afghanistan for 18 years — bureaucratic inertia, partisan dysfunction, domestic indifference — are the same reasons that, even when Bergdahl’s captors eagerly hoped to broker his release, it took so long to recover him.

And when we did recover Bergdahl, the cost of his actions, particularly for his former comrades and those sent to search for him, became acutely evident. Some of the most moving pages in the book recount the testimony of Shannon Allen, whose husband, Mark, was shot in the head when he was sent to a remote part of eastern Afghanistan to track down information on Bergdahl.

Mark Allen remains largely in a vegetative state despite at times responding to prompts from Shannon and their young daughter. On the witness stand Shannon said, “Instead of a wife, I am a caretaker.”

Following Shannon Allen’s testimony, Bergdahl took the stand.

He read a prepared apology in which he said: “I made a horrible mistake. . . . People went through things that they never should have. I was trying to help, and the fact that I did not breaks my heart.”

On rebuttal, the lead prosecutor, Maj. Justin Oshana, challenged Bergdahl’s choice of words. “It wasn’t a mistake,” he said. “It was a crime.”

Whether Bergdahl’s actions were a mistake or a crime is the central question of “American Cipher.” In light of the amount of suffering his actions caused, it’s a fair question to ask of Bergdahl.

And in light of our nearly 20-year misadventure in Afghanistan, it is also a fair question to be asking of ourselves. n Ackerman is the author of several novels. His memoir, “Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning,” will be published in June.

16

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