Welcome back to The Weekend Press! Today, Caitlin Flanagan regrets Tom Cruise’s America-hating new film. Aaron MacLean explains why you need to read a biography of Xi Jinping’s father. Kat Rosenfield is still reeling from the bizarre Elizabeth Holmes documentary. And more!
But first: Why would you leave America to live in England?
Look, I’m not going to pretend your country’s not great. I spend a lot of time in the Free Press office in New York, and whenever I look out the window at the skyline, the majestic Succession theme starts playing in my head. Speeding across the Brooklyn Bridge in a yellow cab is the ultimate manifestation of the phrase “I’ve made it.” Your houses are so big, your appliances so very modern, and even your domestic flights have live TV!
England, where I live, is not like that. The economy is stagnant. Our prime ministers are always resigning. In London, my perfectly nice apartment—or, as we say, flat—does not have a dishwasher. Or a tumble dryer. I’ve had my phone stolen not once, not twice, but three times.
But, I’m sorry, no matter how much Americans try to persuade me—and believe me, Bari will not let me hear the end of it—I’m not going to move to America.
Our contributing writer Freya India, a fellow Brit, made a different decision. Last summer, she moved to Washington, D.C., for work, then spent a year “trying to talk myself out of my homesickness; trying not to think about what I was giving up, all that time with my parents and grandparents; trying to think of the GDP!”
But a few weeks ago, she packed up and came home to London. “Many people think this is a mistake,” she writes in her essay today. Brits remind her of the money to be made in the U.S. Americans worry she’ll get arrested for her posts on X.
More powerful than her belief that England has problems, Freya writes, was “this sense of betrayal, like I had left somewhere I was obligated to.” She was investigating what makes 20somethings unhappy, and gradually concluding that it’s because they’re afraid “to put down foundations, to bind ourselves to places and people.”
It’s not that England is better. It’s not that America is worse. This week, when I saw the BBC headline “Tiny Rare Frogs Bred for First Time at London Zoo,” I said to a colleague who was also born here, “We live in a silly little country.” We don’t deny it. But it’s home.
—Freya Sanders
This week, Daniel Cox wrote about the young men without college degrees who are losing the dating game; River Page reported on a male teacher’s worst nightmare; and Suzy Weiss weighed in on the curiosity shop that is furious with Kelly Clarkson. Catch up today:
Knock Knock, It’s Cupid!
A new batch of ads from single Free Pressers is live on our site! Click here to meet a mountain man in Steamboat Springs, Colorado; a kosher Scrabble lover in D.C.; and a poetic romantic in Cuba. Your special someone could be just one email away! If you’d like to take a chance at Free Press love, write a paragraph that defines you, including your age, where you live, and what you’re looking for, and send it over to Cupid@TheFP.com.
How should you spend the rest of your weekend? We asked our columnist Aaron MacLean for his recommendations. . .
📚Read. . . Joseph Torigian’s The Party’s Interests Come First, which recently came out in paperback. Technically a biography of Xi Zhongxun, Xi Jinping’s father, this elegant and insightful book doubles as a fantastic introduction to the history of the Chinese Communist Party in the 20th century—and the claustrophobic madness of working at its pinnacle. An intimate of Mao Zedong, Xi Zhongxun had a leading role in government during some of the CCP’s most consequential and deadly years, only to be purged himself in the 1960s. His daughter, Xi Jinping’s half-sister, committed suicide, and Xi Jinping himself was sent to live in the countryside, where he slept in a cave. Ultimately, he responded to the party’s betrayal of his family by becoming even more committed to its totalitarian goals. Torigian explores this irony, among other themes, as he narrates many of the last century’s deadliest tragedies from the point of view of a father and son at the center of it all. (You can also listen to Torigian discuss the book on my podcast School of War.)
🍺Drink. . . An ice-cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. California’s contributions to the American project have been mixed, but we can put this beverage firmly in the “pro” category, along with movies and surfing—both of which it accompanies nicely. I developed a taste for it when I spent a summer in California during the Marine Corps, and now it’s my go-to. It’s got more character than a Budweiser but isn’t so froufrou that you sound intolerably pretentious for saying you like it. What more do you want from a beer?
📺Watch. . . The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I’m not sure why, but I find this movie strangely arresting, and I am pleased to report that, if you’ve seen it before, it really holds up. The film, based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, stars Brad Pitt as Benjamin, who is born in the body of a shriveled old man, and then lives his life physically backward. Travels, wars, and a lifelong romance with Cate Blanchett ensue—and that romance is complicated by the fact that she ages normally. Moving, strange (in the best way), and a marvelous survey of the American century from a fantastical and moving perspective. Watch with a Sierra Nevada in hand.
That’s all, folks! Have a great weekend.