Rating: 4 stars (Spotlight Review)
Jon Ronson (The Men Who Stare at Goats) is no stranger to the peculiar. Having already covered bizarre military experiments, KKK members and other extremists, Mr. Ronson has decided to dive head first into mental disorders, specifically psychopaths.
Since Mr. Ronson suffers from severe anxiety, it’s unclear why a man, who’s convinced his wife is dead simply because she fails to answer the phone, would take on such a task.
Ronson’s quest for the psychopath began after being contacted by a neurologist named Deborah Talmi who, along with other upper-level academics, received a very puzzling book entitled Being or Nothingness. At first glance the book appeared to be enshrouded in mystery and deep meaning. However, after extensive travel and investigation it was discovered that the book was not written by a mad genius, but simply a crackpot.
During a tour of Ms. Talmi’s workplace, Mr. Ronson asked about a woman he saw named Essi Viding, a neurologist who studies psychopaths, and he was told the following story: Ms. Viding once showed a photo of a frightened face to one of her subjects and asked him to identify the emotion. The subject replied that although he couldn’t name the emotion, it was the face people exhibited just before he killed them.
On his all-madness tour, Ronson talked with various people, including: Tony, a young man who faked mental illness to avoid prison by quoting violent movies; and, ended up in an institution for the criminally insane for the past 14 years; corporate CEO Al Dunlap, who callously plundered Sunbeam in staggering display of ruthlessness and insatiable greed; and, Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, former leader of a Haitian death squad. After committing multiple, heinous murders—allegedly at the behest of the CIA—Constant avoided prison, but instead was sentenced to live with his mother in Queens.
Jon Ronson does an admirable job of remaining open-minded and impartial, despite the difficult issues. On one occasion his impartiality did falter when one of his more maddening subjects, conspiracy theorist David Shayler spewed such ridiculous, irrational nonsense about the North London bombings and 9/11 that it caused Mr. Ronson to react with the only appropriate response under the circumstances—telling Shayler to “fuck off”.
Written from a layman’s perspective, Mr. Ronson doesn’t bog things down with the potentially-dry mechanics of psychology, but does a thorough job explaining the necessary technicalities in a comprehensive and concise fashion.
Though some of the content is a bit unsettling, Jon Ronson’s humorous and witty writing style, coupled with his self-deprecating and anxiety-riddled personality helps put the reader at ease.
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Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (May 12, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-1594488016