Three soldiers with Uzi submachine guns slung casually over their shoulders step from the sidewalk to the street as a group of Orthodox Jewish siblings pass, the oldest carrying the youngest on her back. This is Israel-- a religious dream, a Jewish homeland, whose existence depends on constant military supervision....

Joan Didion was standing on Central Park's SummerStage last week, reading from her book The Year of Magical Thinking, in her distinctive, depressive monotone, when a rain cloud cracked open above the pastoral park scene. One minute I was part of an audience that was lounging and listening,...