The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of violence and mental illness. Additionally, the source material cites offensive terms for people who have mental illnesses, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

Jonathan Rosen is an American writer and editor. He is the author of two novels: Eve’s Apple (1997) and Joy Comes in the Morning (2004), and two previous works of non-fiction: The Talmud and the Internet (2000) and The Life of the Skies (2008). He is the editorial director of Nextbook, and his essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and several anthologies. 

In The Best Minds Rosen recalls his friendship with the book’s subject, Michael Laudor. Rosen summarizes the book as “a personal story rooted in childhood […] told […] by a writer past the midpoint of his life, looking back at a friendship that began when he was ten years old” (509). Although the text is a work of non-fiction, his techniques as a novelist are evident in his prose. Key events are described in the engaging style of fiction, echoing the tone of a coming-of-age novel.

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