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Yale Law School: 1993

 "The Best Minds" is worthy of the hype; it's an astonishing story told by the *correct* storyteller. As the NYTimes observed, it's "pin-you-to-your-couch" storytelling.


Michael is a bright and egotistical kid in New Rochelle. He is interviewed at the school paper's office; if he were offered the spot of managing editor, rather than editor-in-chief, would he accept? Despite the fact that the editor-in-chief will be his close friend, Michael throws a tantrum. This moment of poor judgment does not hurt in the long term; Michael is offered a spot at Yale. He lives in Silliman College and graduates in three years. Summa cum laude. Phi Beta Kappa. He goes off to work at Bain, which pays Yale graduates to spend long weekends memorizing all of the operational details that form the skeletons of various industries. (The Bain employees then offer their consulting services.) At this point in his life, Michael has started imagining that flames are licking the floors of his apartment, certain colleagues are in fact Satan, a particular boss does not have hands but instead has claws.

Before his first obvious psychotic break, Michael is admitted to Yale Law School. He does not want to work at a cash register at Macy's. (He does actually check out the Macy's in Herald Square.) Michael's father contacts the Yale Law dean--and, because of a mix of narcissism and questionable "good" intentions, the dean says that he will *not* rescind Michael's acceptance. So--still wrestling with daily terrifying hallucinations--Michael returns to New Haven.

Jonathan Rosen's title, "The Best Minds," is an allusion to Allen Ginsberg. It also seems to be tongue-in-cheek. We might assume that professors at Yale Law School are among "the best minds" in the country--but these are people who make demands of Michael without really considering what might be compassionate and wise. At a law firm, in a lowly position, Michael insists that he cannot share an office. "Go back and read the Americans With Disabilities Act. I need accomodations; I have schizophrenia." Michael is then punished--he is not given his own office, but instead he is paid to just sit at a desk without work. ("You can't work around other people? We'll demean you by writing checks for you--in exchange for nothing.")

If you have read a few newspapers, you may know that things do not get better from here.

The book this calls to mind is "Robert Peace," another damning portrait of Yale. But Rosen has gone above and beyond. He must have researched this story for years. His awareness of tiny moments in Michael's life is impressive. His understanding of the intersection of law, philosophy, and psychiatry is also noteworthy. You don't see the stitchwork. There is a sense of total control in the narrative.

Great book.
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