Best of 2017: Reporting

Victor J. Blue, “Captain Basam Attallah Shoots at a Cache of ISIS Explosives” (2017)

Here are my favorite New Yorker reporting pieces of 2017 (with a choice quote from each in brackets):

1. Luke Mogelson, “The Avengers of Mosul,” February 6, 2017 (“We accelerated into the lead, hurtling down alleys and whipping around corners. I was impressed that the driver could steer at all. The bulletproof windshield, cracked by past rounds, looked like battered ice, and a large photograph of a recently killed SWAT-team member obstructed much of the view”).

2. Gary Shteyngart, “Time Out,” March 20, 2017 (“If you want a watch that looks like a Russian oligarch just curled up around your wrist and died, you might be interested in the latest model of Rolex’s Sky-Dweller”).

3. Ian Frazier, “Drive Time,” August 28, 2017 (“For me, the dreamy part of metro-area driving happens when the traffic is light and every highway on my phone’s congestion map glows green”).

4. Ian Frazier, “High-Rise Greens,” January 9, 2017 (“Throughout the mini-farm, PVC pipes and wires run here and there, connecting to clamps and switches. The pumps hum, the water gurgles, and the whole thing makes the sound of a courtyard fountain”).

5. Ian Frazier, “Clear Passage,” November 13, 2017 (“On an afternoon in early spring, I talked to two painters from Ahern Contractors, in Woodside, New York, who told me that they were painting the bridge pewter-cup gray. It’s a nice shade, and everything that day—bridge, water, clouds, birds, sky—seemed to be a version of it”).

6. Ben Taub, “We Have No Choice,” April 10, 2017 (“The rescue vessel eased alongside the dinghy, and we shuttled migrants back to the Dignity I in groups of around fifteen. As the rescue boat bobbed next to the larger ship, Nicholas Papachrysostomou, an M.S.F. field coördinator, helped Blessing stand up. She was nauseated and weak. Her feet were pruning; they had been soaking for hours in a puddle at the bottom of the dinghy. Two crew members hoisted her aboard by her shoulders. She stood on the deck with her arms crossed—sobbing, shivering, heaving, praising God”).

7. Danielle Allen, “American Inferno,” July 24, 2017 (“Why did he love her? He loved her because she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He loved her because, of all the men in prison, she had chosen him—and that was a gift of surpassing value. But it was also a gift that came to blind him. When he was finally released from prison, I failed to grasp that he was not yet free”).

8. Evan Osnos, “On the Brink,” September 18, 2017 (“The mentions of war and weaponry were everywhere: on television, on billboards, in the talk of well-rehearsed schoolchildren”).

9. Burkhard Bilger, “Feathered Glory,” September 25, 2017 (“Almost every outfit bore a striking embellishment: a coat of arms, an embroidered badge, a feathered breastplate, tufted sleeves. If you looked closely, you could see patterns in the designs: a heraldic eagle, a pair of rising phoenixes. These were refined, modern designs, yet they had a rude vitality—as if they might peel from the cloth at any moment and take flight”).

10. Nick Paumgarten, “Singer of Secrets,” August 28, 2017 (“Later, when she’d started calling me Uncle Nick or Nicky boy, I’d find myself wondering if this skin-suit episode hadn’t been an elaborate setup, a provocation or even a trap laid by someone known to be in command of her presentation in the world. Or maybe it was just show biz, the same old meat market now refracted through self-aware layers of intention and irony”).