The Best Minds
A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
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The Best Minds
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Rosen
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By:
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Jonathan Rosen
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
A novelist's gripping investigation of the forces that led his childhood best friend from academic stardom to the psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved.
When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle, New York in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable. Both children of professors, the boys were best friends and fierce rivals who soon followed each other to Yale University.
Michael blazed through Yale in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job. Then one day, Jonathan received a devastating call: Michael had suffered a psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Michael was still in hospital when he learned he'd been accepted to Yale Law School, and living in a halfway house when he decided, against all odds, to enroll. Still battling delusions, he managed to graduate, and after his triumphant story was featured in The New York Times, sold a memoir for a vast sum. Ron Howard bought film rights, completing the dream for Michael and his tirelessly supportive girlfriend Carrie, and Brad Pitt was set to star. But then Michael, in the grip of psychosis, committed a horrific act that made him a front-page story of an entirely different sort.
The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen's powerful account of an American tragedy, set in the final decades of the American century, an era that coincided with the emptying out of state mental hospitals. It is a story about the bonds of friendship, the price of delusion and the mystery of identity. Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, The Best Minds is both a beautifully rendered coming of age story and an indictment of the profound neglect of mental illness in our society.
©2023 Jonathan Rosen (P)2023 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A beautifully written meditation on society's inability to cope with the problem of mental illness." (Gal Beckerman)
"This book gets you in its grip from the first pages. It is the opposite of a magic trick: nothing is hidden but the revelations are constantly stunning, a testament to Jonathan Rosen's sheer skill as an author. The Best Minds is a heartbreaking story and an astonishing work of art, its tragedy rendered with unbounded humanity and depth." (Stephen J. Dubner)
"A work of intimacy, scope and sweeping power, this epic book reads like a classic American novel. Both a heart-rending tragedy and a story of love and companionship, The Best Minds is utterly compelling." (Seán Hewitt)
What listeners say about The Best Minds
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- AlAb
- 17-01-24
Beautiful, moving, informative
Beautiful, moving, informative - I highly recommend this book - a story of a friendship, of psychiatry in the US, of a tragedy.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 27-05-24
Great read
Really fascinating insight into the world of schizophrenia from a first hand perspective. Sensitive and insightful without being overly sympathetic. Really enjoyed it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Louise
- 16-05-23
Riveting. Insightful. Eye opening
A brilliantly told story about a huge societal problem which is all too often sidelined by our very broken systems. People who live with serious mental illnesses in their family struggle to get adequate help and support for their loved ones and this story illustrates the dreadful tragedies that can result. This is extreme of course - it’s rare that mental illness causes homicide. But because it’s these cases that get headlines, the public perception of mental illness is danger, crime, fear. And it could be avoided, if only adequate support in early stages could be more available and accessible. But will things change? Nothing has changed for decades so I don’t hold out much hope. Most of the available support is provided by charities, set up as a consequence of experiencing pain or tragedy. But we need our governments to recognise and acknowledge the desperate need for improvement and do something about it. Wishful thinking I fear.
A great book. Read it
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eryk
- 13-12-23
Superb. Recommended.
It’s up there with “Amadeus” (1984 film by Milos Forman) & “Flowers for Algernon” (1966 novel by Daniel Keyes).
A classic.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Yessica A.M.
- 23-08-24
Beautiful, compassionate and honest
This is one of the most beautiful books I've listened to in a long time.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Ess. J
- 23-01-24
Weak
not the book which is very well written and narrated, but the subject Michael who was a 'success' and 'brilliant' except at actual work and handling pressure many others find a way through. He's in the right place now. Seems if you're paranoid delusional you may be able to pass a Law Degree but not actually practice law and will remain a threat to society at large unless on suppressive medication for eternity.
Michael was not 'the best mind' at any point despite seemingly great at regurgitated articulation - surface level capability seemed to mark his limits. The very inability to reason that your wife is not a doll (despite knowing what a doll is, what it would take to make it articulate, speak and sound like the real thing and where the world is in even the most advanced research labs) points to this inadequacy.
Not certain my synopsis is where the book was aiming but that's the cut and thrust of it - it's only flaw was in ever considering Michael brilliant. By academic measures only. RIP Carey.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 03-03-24
An incredible and all too human story
The book kept me at the edge of my seat, in pity, with anger, or crying from all the injustices of the very human story, I did it all in one seating (pretty much)
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