Nothing Happened and Then it Did: The Jake Silverstein Debut

I have a neighbor, whom I shall call Jane, who makes living in this neck of my woods a treasure. I'll say she teaches English as a second language at a community college. I'll say she and I watch horses trot up the street in May. I'll say that she's a mother loved fiercely by her daughters—daughters you'd greatly admire, if you knew them.

Jane also has a son-in-law named Jake Silverstein—or at least she says she does. You might have heard of him—a contributing editor at Harper's magazine, ...