Product details
- ASIN
:
B0B6ZC3S47 - Publisher
:
Penguin Press (April 18, 2023) - Publication date
:
April 18, 2023 - Language
:
English - File size
:
2336 KB - Text-to-Speech
:
Enabled - Screen Reader
:
Supported - Enhanced typesetting
:
Enabled - X-Ray
:
Enabled - Word Wise
:
Enabled - Sticky notes
:
On Kindle Scribe - Print length
:
575 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #5,976 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4 in Psychological Pathologies
- #5 in Mental Illness
- #23 in Health, Fitness & Dieting (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
Kindle Customer –
Truly a great, moving work of brilliance. This book is why I read; to be taken some place I haven’t been (even though I grew up in New Rochelle) and learn, experience and wonder about humanity.
Jacob Timothy Rothman –
This book starts out a little slow, though very well written. Once you get to know the characters, it gets hard to put down. It is a fascinating look at mental health disorders.
Tiffany J –
Usually I walk away throughout a book with slow returns… but continued nightly on this one.I’ve already started recommending to friends and family.
Tricia Alexander –
The subtitle is what interested me. I have a “brilliant” brother, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, who murdered a family friend, was sentenced to life, and was paroled after serving 9 years and walked out with the loving support of family (including me) and friends, with a condition of his parole being that he must stay on his meds, only to quit taking his meds and then repeating the psychotic behavior that he exhibited before his crime. My father was required to file charges against my brother to have him re-incarcerated after he began threatening family members because the parole officer said he couldn’t make my brother take his meds. I agree with the conclusions in this book of Owen Fiss that all of Michael’s supporters should have inquired into the possibility of violence. The signs were there. My family didn’t make that inquiry and didn’t see the signs before the murder that my brother committed but did when my brother was out on parole. By that time, we knew what he was capable of. It is the institution which provides the structure necessary for my brother to stay medicated and he has even refused to take his meds in prison in the years after his parole was revoked. This book will stay with me for a long time. The author has captured the very essence of this illness.
27Quincy –
This book has special resonance for me because, like the author and the subject, I was born in 1963, and thus grew amidst the ruins of institutions torn down in the progressive frenzy of the late 1960s but not necessarily replaced with a better alternative. One particular locus of destruction were the psychiatric facilities of an earlier time, shuttered in the earnest but naive belief that the main problem with mental illness was not the illness itself but societal discrimination against those suffering from it. Amidst this wreckage emerged the brilliant Michael Laudor, the author’s childhood best friend. Like any good work of nonfiction, it starts with an intimate and narrow lens and then opens up to much broader themes about life and society. The main theme, quite persuasively argued, is foreshadowed in the subtitle: “The Tragedy of Good Intentions.” Elites at the highest levels of American academia and culture couldn’t resist the story of the schizophrenic who had overcome his illness and reached personal and professional heights. Except that story wasn’t true, and all eventually came crashing down. I thought the book was beautifully written, with the caveat that I enjoyed the first half much more than the second half, which got a bit tedious and could have used some tighter editing. But overall this is a superb and important work of nonfiction that shows once again that, notwithstanding the best of intentions, the one law that can’t be repealed or amended is the Law of Unintended Consequences. Everyone meant well for Michael, but everyone — and the system — failed both him and his victim. I couldn’t recommend more highly, and have been telling all my friends about this one.
G. J. –
This is great book in so many ways. It is beautifully written – I did not find a single word or phrase that wasn’t needed. Rosen tells a compelling story that makes the book hard to put down. In addition to the drama of the story, it deals with an important issue for our time: How should we treat those with severe mental illness? Rosen doesn’t so much answer that question as intelligently and sensitively place the tragic story of his friend in the context of that issue. Clearly, our mental health system did not work in this case as in so many others. Finally, Rosen’s voice in this book is a comfort. He is a very wise and compassionate writer. I am old and an avid reader, and this is one of the best books I have ever read.
Robin E. Martin –
History of mental illness and its complexities. A must in a world with so much mental illness!
Friend of Books –
An excruciating tale of a genius with schizophrenia who murders his fiancée, believing her to be a wind-up doll. Highly engaging, yet insightful.
Betsy Pascucci –
I bought this book because I used to live in the little town where this murder happened. Very small town, Hastings, NY, very terrible crime. Maybe it’s just me but after reading this very well written true crime story, I wondered why all those around this sad man enabled him so. I mean, he graduated from law school only because he had such a lot of help. People must have noticed how he was treating his girlfriend/victim. They set him up in a faux law practive, for crying out loud. He was such a fragile man, so very mentally ill and they all knew it. Maybe they didn’t just sit by and let him commit this terrible murder, but they really did nothing to keep the world safe from this very sick man. Very well researched, very well written and thoughtful.
Diane A –
Thoughtful and powerful. New insights into old problems and engaging storytelling. Can’t stop thinking about this book and the true characters.