Martha R. - , reviewed on 9/9/2011 + 9 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This is a somewhat strange book. It begins and ends with a "mystery," that seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the book. I guess that I feel the book promises more than it delivers. It talks about the author's expereince with an instrument, a checklist, that purports to identify psychopaths. I have only an average layperson's knowledge about psychology, and there was nothing in this book that I didn't already know from reading popular literature - "psychopaths lack empathy." The author discusses his meetings with and impressions of three people - one of these is a corporate businessman. But there is not anything in the book that would bring us to the conclusion that most of America's corporate businessman are psychopaths, as the advertising claims. Could be possible, but you can't know from this book.

The author's encounter with Tony, a man who is imprisoned at Broadmoor, England's famous hospital for the criminally insane, is interesting. But in general I found the book very unsatisfying and wonder why Ronson wrote it - it was not even well-written.

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