The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • Named a Top 10 Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Slate, and People
One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023
“Brave and nuanced . . . an act of tremendous compassion and a literary triumph.” —The New York Times
“Immensely emotional and unforgettably haunting.” —The Wall Street Journal
Acclaimed author Jonathan Rosen’s haunting investigation of the forces that led his closest childhood friend, Michael Laudor, from the heights of brilliant promise to the forensic psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved. A story about friendship, love, and the price of self-delusion, The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understand—and fail to understand—mental illness.
When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable. Both children of college professors, the boys were best friends and keen competitors, and, when they both got into Yale University, seemed set to join the American meritocratic elite.
Michael blazed through college in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job. But all wasn’t as it seemed. One day, Jonathan received the call: Michael had suffered a serious psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital.
Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Michael was still battling delusions when he traded his halfway house for Yale Law School. Featured in The New York Times as a role model genius, he sold a memoir, with film rights to Ron Howard. But then Michael, in the grip of an unshakeable paranoid fantasy, stabbed his girlfriend Carrie to death and became a front-page story of an entirely different sort.
Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen’s magnificent and heartbreaking account of good intentions and tragic outcomes whose significance will echo widely.
Publisher : Penguin Books
Publication date : April 16, 2024
Language : English
Print length : 576 pages
ISBN-10 : 014313289X
ISBN-13 : 978-0143132899
Item Weight : 1 pounds
Dimensions : 5.48 x 1.23 x 8.41 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #14,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #21 in Murder & Mayhem True Accounts #70 in Popular Psychology Pathologies #190 in Memoirs (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,825) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Original price was: $20.00.$14.17Current price is: $14.17.
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • Named a Top 10 Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Slate, and People
One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023
“Brave and nuanced . . . an act of tremendous compassion and a literary triumph.” —The New York Times
“Immensely emotional and unforgettably haunting.” —The Wall Street Journal
Acclaimed author Jonathan Rosen’s haunting investigation of the forces that led his closest childhood friend, Michael Laudor, from the heights of brilliant promise to the forensic psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved. A story about friendship, love, and the price of self-delusion, The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understand—and fail to understand—mental illness.
When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable. Both children of college professors, the boys were best friends and keen competitors, and, when they both got into Yale University, seemed set to join the American meritocratic elite.
Michael blazed through college in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job. But all wasn’t as it seemed. One day, Jonathan received the call: Michael had suffered a serious psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital.
Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Michael was still battling delusions when he traded his halfway house for Yale Law School. Featured in The New York Times as a role model genius, he sold a memoir, with film rights to Ron Howard. But then Michael, in the grip of an unshakeable paranoid fantasy, stabbed his girlfriend Carrie to death and became a front-page story of an entirely different sort.
Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen’s magnificent and heartbreaking account of good intentions and tragic outcomes whose significance will echo widely.
Publisher : Penguin Books
Publication date : April 16, 2024
Language : English
Print length : 576 pages
ISBN-10 : 014313289X
ISBN-13 : 978-0143132899
Item Weight : 1 pounds
Dimensions : 5.48 x 1.23 x 8.41 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #14,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #21 in Murder & Mayhem True Accounts #70 in Popular Psychology Pathologies #190 in Memoirs (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,825) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
9 reviews for The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
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Original price was: $20.00.$14.17Current price is: $14.17.
Patricia Ibarra –
A touching book about friendship and schizophrenia
Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor have been friends since they were very young as they lived in the same school, went to the same school, and shared the same interests and aspirations. Their friendship blossomed in junior high and high school. In college, they were not as close because their studies were different. Jonathan liked literature and although Michael wanted to become a writer, he went to law school. Nevertheless, their lives never drifted apart and they were there for each other. Michael was a genius and everybody liked him, but his personal life was not as easy and his father was always attentive to his problems. He suffered a psychotic break and ended up in a psychiatric hospital, diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was treated, and when he was released he led a normal life, but he was sick. He stopped taking his medicines, and from being so brilliant he finished living in a hospital after killing his beloved fiancee. A very good and thorough story, which can be classified as a novel, as an essay, as mental research, as history, and most importantly, we clearly see what a true friend is. It covers many different prongs of this terrible disease.
BhamMommy –
A hard read
This book is well written and truly eye-opening, but it is not a bedtime story or a leisure read. At approximately 50% through it I debated stopping, but I kept at it and I’m pretty sure I’m glad I did. Dealing with mental illness is such a complex experience and this book really sheds a light on the many facets of mental illness.
Love Hearts –
Touches the Heart
Although this book is lengthy, it is a very touching and detailed story of a childhood friendship that ended very sadly and disastrously. Jonathan Rosen throughout his book, gives a very detailed history of the theories behind mental illness , its institutionalization and failures.The author has the ability to entertain the reader in the most ingenious ways with beautiful analogies and much humor. It does have you on the edge of your seat as the story unfolds, and gradually starts taking on a very ominous sense of direction.This had to be a difficult book for Rosen to write because it involves his needing to be very self-aware and admit to some haunting personal struggles. There are no loose ends in this memoir. His acknowledgments are very much worth reading.Although this book may leave you sad and even a bit emotionally drained, it has a very purposeful and educational design.This book is well worth reading, not just for learning about the history of mental illness, it’s treatment, and the desperate need for better ways to care for these people, but also for the enjoyment of the author’s ability to put words together in very entertaining and brilliant ways.
Dee Dee –
Deeply insightful and Beautifully Written
This book is spectacularly good. I couldn’t put it down. I am in awe of Mr. Rosen’s ability to tell the unusual and gripping story of his schizophrenic childhood friend with such sensitivity, while exploring the problems of friends and family in trying to deal with such an extremely mentally ill person, as well as the ways in which our society has pretty much failed to really help anybody. This book is deeply researched and insightful. I read this in the wake of the recent brutal murder of a close friend by her paranoid schizophrenic brother who had refused medication. I had a lot of trouble accepting his insanity. I couldn’t understand how someone could be that crazy and out of control. I was (and am) angry as well as sad. This book helped me A LOT to understand that level of insanity, to understand, too late, how much danger my friend had been in, and to understand our absurd, and broken, mental health system that left my friend with actually NO options to help a loved one who was and is insane, or to protect herself from his psychotic behavior. And to understand how much we get wrong about schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses. Mr. Rosen writes beautifully and with heart. He is also perceptive and tough: he lays bare some of the bizarre beliefs of the 60s which posited that schizophrenia was just another, maybe better, variety of normal, as well as the irresponsiblity of our government in shredding the safety net for the mentally ill and effectively turning them into the street, too often to hurt themselves and sometimes, others. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been touched by a tragedy like he was, and I was, or who is interested in the larger picture of mental health policy. It must have been a hard book to write, and I salute and thank Mr. Rosen for doing it.
GadGiltHomy –
Eyes opening novel on things like: the society in the 60-80s as well as mental illness. Rhe novel was worth the time. Truly good
Amazon Customer –
Tough to put down. Enjoyed very much. It’s an honest account.
Diana –
This compelling story of decline and fall is so well told I had to remind myself that I hadn’t lived it. The time, the place, the people seemed more like facets of my own memory than figures in someone else’s narrative. Rosen’s account of his personal connection to the tragedy is brutally honest. His explanation of the role played by America’s mental health crisis is devastating. I could not put this book down. Very highly recommended.
Tania –
Me aburrió mucho, pero puede ser porque no es mi estilo de lectura.
Mark Lipton –
Not only a tragic story but an honest and insightful look at the great percentage of society impacted by mental illness and society’s failure to deliver much needed care.