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The Best Minds
The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions | Jonathan Rosen
6 posts | 7 read | 14 to read
Acclaimed author Jonathan Rosens 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 understandand fail to understandmental 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 wasnt 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 in the hospital when he learned he'd been accepted to Yale Law School, and still battling delusions when he decided to trade his halfway house for the top law school in the country. He not only managed to graduate, but after his extraordinary story was featured in The New York Times, sold a memoir for a large sum. Ron Howard bought film rights, completing the dream for Michael and his tirelessly supportive girlfriend Carrie. But then Michael, in the grip of an unshakeable paranoid fantasy, stabbed Carrie to death with a kitchen knife and became a front-page story of an entirely different sort. The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen's brilliant and heartbreaking account of an American tragedy. It is a story about the bonds of family, friendship, and community; the promise of intellectual achievement; and the lure of utopian solutions. Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, at times almost unbearably sad, The Best Minds is an extreme version of a story that is tragically familiar to all too many. In the hands of a writer of Jonathan Rosen's gifts and dedication, its significance will echo widely.
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Amiable
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Pickpick

Book 3 ✔️ for #DiseaseoftheMonthBookClub (prompt: Read a book about the brain)

This is a memoir of Rosen‘s friendship with Michael Laudor, who, despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia, breezed through Yale as an undergrad and law student and was heralded as an example of how people can triumph over the stigma of mental illness—until he killed his girlfriend. It‘s also an examination of how society has failed those with mental illnesses.

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Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

I‘m so glad this was one of the NYT‘s top 10 of 2023, as I‘m not sure I would have found it otherwise and it‘s superb. Rosen explores the recent history and current state of mental health care in the US by telling the story of his friend Michael. They grew up together as friends and competitors, until in their 20s Michael developed schizophrenia and headed toward tragedy. It‘s a tough book but really well done.

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Chelsea.Poole
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Pickpick

This truly shines when Rosen discusses his boyhood friendship with Michael Laudor, a brilliant young man. Sadly, Laudor descends into madness and commits a horrific crime. The book goes into many tangents throughout the story of Michael‘s life about mental illness in America including lobotomies, legislation, etc. I found this engaging but wondered how Rosen knew the intimate details of Laudor‘s life when they were grown and no longer close.

Hooked_on_books There‘s a long wait for this one from my library but I‘m curious about it after its inclusion on the NYT list. You make an excellent point about where his knowledge would have come from. 3mo
Amor4Libros This sounds interesting. Stacked! 3mo
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bio_chem06
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This book had me hooked in the first few chapters. A great dissection into the failure of the mental health system and also a good page turner even though you know the outcome.

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bio_chem06
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This book has been great so far. It‘s been a little challenging because my best friend is going through a pretty challenging mental health crisis right now, so it‘s a little triggering for me. But overall, I love the joyful stories about being kids and growing up. Def reminds me to be happy about the time I‘ve had and not dwell on the future I may not be able to control.

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Floresj
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Part memoir, part biography of a childhood friend, Rosen traces the arc of his life vs Michael Laudor‘s. It‘s striving, witty, vulnerable, jealous, confused, and resolute. Very readable, and I covered the 500+ pages in record time…almost like a thriller, as it has a tragic ending. With Rosen‘s memory, the reader also tried to see the signs of mental illness that is so clear later. Good book!