Hallelujah
For the current issue of Harper’s, novelist Rivka Galchen pens the creative essay “Hallelujah,” subtitled, “An economic companion to the Messiah.” Amid stream of consciousness vignettes, Galchen explores the musical composition and the Christmas holiday. “The first of several Christmas concerts I attended last year was a performance of the Messiah at Trinity Wall Street church,” she writes in one section. “A few days later, Occupy Wall Street protesters attempted to move into a space owned by the church. An Episcopal bishop, George Packard, was the first to climb over the fence and occupy the lot. Protesters were almost immediately removed by the police.”