The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
October 04, 2024 at 03:30PM
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In this week’s edition:
- Two teens, fentanyl, and the systems that failed them
- The private lives of pygmy seahorses
- An iconic national park during peak (idiot) tourist season
- The perseverance of a beginning beekeeper
- The attorney taking on doggy death row cases
1. Maylia and Jack
Lizzie Presser | ProPublica | September 28, 2024 | 7,738 words
On its surface, this is a story about a drug dealer and one of her customers, who overdosed on fentanyl he bought from her, thinking it was Percocet. But Lizzie Presser’s latest feature isn’t a clear-cut story about a perpetrator and victim. It’s far more tragic than that. Maylia and Jack are both kids, two of the untold number of minors caught up in one side or the other of the burgeoning fentanyl trade afflicting the US. Maylia didn’t know the extent of the harm she was abetting when she sold pills; Jack didn’t know the danger he faced when he crushed and smoked what he bought from her. And how could they? Institutions failed them left and right, providing virtually no knowledge or other resources that might have saved either of them from their respective fates. In Maylia’s case, there was a dysfunctional, abusive family who provided her no life guidance, and the police, who knew the pills she was selling were fentanyl but didn’t stop her from doing so. In Jack’s case, there was the aforementioned police, who might have saved his life, as well as educational and rehab systems that didn’t sound the alarm bells that he (and his now-grieving mother) so desperately needed to hear. Both Maylia and Jack were failed by a criminal justice system woefully under-equipped to grapple with the impact of illegal drugs on children. Presser tells a tough but necessary story—one without heroes or answers, but with compassion to spare. —SD
2. The Strange Romance of Seahorses
Richard Smith | Nautilus | September 27, 2024 | 2,140 words
I needed humor and lightness this week, and nothing satisfied me more than Richard Smith’s essay, which is an excerpt from his book The World Beneath: The Life and Times of Unknown Sea Creatures and Coral Reefs. Seahorses (and their close relatives, like leafy sea dragons) are remarkable animals; males can get pregnant and give birth, and are “subject to all aspects of the phenomenon—even stretch marks,” he writes. But this reproductive behavior isn’t their only fascinating trait. In this piece, we join Smith, a marine biologist, as he scuba dives to the coral reefs of Indonesia with an underwater camera and clipboard to observe pygmy seahorses, the subjects of his doctoral research. The essay is full of enjoyable vignettes. Smith describes Tom as pregnant and rotund and in labor, pushing black specks out into the sea. (“Before being carried off in the current, the babies uncurled to reveal their heritage.“) He also observes brawls between Tom and two other males, Dick and Harry (“Dick grasped Tom around the base of his tail and shoved him off the gorgonian”) and social bonding dances between other trios (“Brad and Jennifer raised several broods together, but all the while Brad was also flirting with Angelina“). The whole piece made me smile. Smith provides a delightful look into the lives of these tiny and fantastic creatures. —CLR
3. Why Does Yellowstone National Park Turn Us All into Maniacs?
Drew Magary | Outside | September 5, 2024 | 2,674 words
Sometimes you see a headline and a byline and you think, “I know exactly what this is going to be.” Drew Magary visiting a national park is one of those times. Magary has mellowed considerably since the Kissing Suzy Kolber days—a traumatic brain injury will do that—and by now he’s the closest thing Gen X has to Dave Barry, which I mean as a sincere compliment. So yes, you’ll want to read this. —PR
4. The Noblest of Things
David Fowler | The Threepenny Review | September 22, 2024 | 2,742 words
In this lyrical essay for The Threepenny Review, David Fowler recounts his experiences as a novice beekeeper trying to fill his hive box near Penelope, Texas. After attempting to rehome two wild bee swarms only to find his hive empty days later, Fowler visits Claude Lester, the “bee man’s bee man,” to start over. He buys five frames “dripping with bees and honey” along with a queen identified by a tiny splotch of blue paint on her back. Lo and beehold, they stay. This piece is a lovely testament to perseverance. Bees, with their crystal clear hierarchy and well-defined roles, are the pinnacle of order and cooperation. Despite this, sometimes things don’t work as we hope or predict—but that’s OK. This essay is about finding much-needed perspective and solace that nature can bring when life gets chaotic and overwhelming. “Bees, it seemed to me, are so meticulous and careful in their actions,” he writes. “Even so, something greater than all their preparations and industry and cleverness had surprised them and cost them everything. For all the richness to be squeezed from knowing of a bee’s life, I sometimes think there is even more to be learned from its demise.” Fowler’s essay reminds us that despite deep care and best efforts, sometimes things fail and we’re left with making the best of a difficult situation. Above all, it’s about being open and prepared to learn from what life—and sometimes death—has to teach us. —KS
5. He Handles Custody Disputes, Death Row Cases, and Biters. He’s Salem’s Dog Lawyer.*
Douglas Starr | Globe Magazine | September 5, 2024 | 3,376 words
Raise your hand if the first thing you thought of when you saw this headline was Walt, the lawyer from Detroiters who’s terrible at DUIs but “kind of a mack when it comes to dog bites.” Just me? Fine. The point is, attorney Jeremy Cohen is also kind of a mack when it comes to dog bites, but not quite in the same way. He argues on behalf of the dog, and has managed to save a number of not-very-good boys from enforced euthanasia. This profile starts as a curio, but very quickly becomes fascinating. When a dog bites a human or attacks another dog, is it irredeemable, or are there in fact multiple factors that can account for the violence? Cohen may have been voted “most likely to need a lawyer himself” in law school, but his genius is unpacking those factors without also condoning the dog’s behavior; behavior training is a constant in the deals he strikes, but so is placing the burden of the dog’s behavior on the human owners. And time after time, everyone leaves the courtroom—or, as is more likely, the town government select board meeting—satisfied that justice has been done. Douglas Starr hits his marks ably, establishing Cohen’s arc and motivations (and F. Lee Bailey friendship?!) alongside his legal exploits, which elevates this from novelty weekend read to something both entertaining and thought-provoking. Belly scratches for all! * Subscription required. —PR
Audience Award
The Water Lilies
Katrina Vandenberg | Orion Magazine | August 29, 2024 | 3,786 words
In this reflective essay for Orion Magazine, Katrina Vandenberg writes about aging, cataracts, and her mother’s burst of creativity later in life, alongside insights on art, Claude Monet’s water lilies, and the process of creating beauty in a time of suffering. —CLR
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/10/04/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-534/
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