Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

This week on nybooks.com: David Cole on why we can’t rely on future Edward Snowdens to fill us in on what the government is doing in our name, John Banville on the sublime Georges Simenon, Francine Prose on Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and its Broadway adaptation, and Kirill Gerstein on Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, which he will perform with the Staatsorchester Stuttgart in July.   SPONSORED BY MIT PRESS JOURNALS

Reining in the NSA David Cole If we are to have meaningful democratic deliberation about new government surveillance powers—and technological advances make it certain that many new methods will be devised—the twin elements of sunset and sunshine need to be built into all surveillance laws.   ADVERTISEMENT   Simenon’s Island of Bad Dreams John Banville Simenon’s uniqueness is that he created high literature in seemingly low forms. True, he wrote fast, and revised little. Yet his artistry is supreme.   The Real Tchaikovsky Kirill Gerstein For many, Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto is the sound of classical music. Yet its famous opening chords are not what the composer wrote.   ADVERTISEMENT   Fragments of a Family Francine Prose Part of what’s fascinating about the Broadway musical Fun Home is how closely it adheres to the outline and details of Alison Bechdel’s book while seeming an entirely original work.