pcgonzo 's review for:

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

3.0

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I just finished listening to Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test" and found it to be . . . not at all what I was expecting. More an intimate portrait of Ronson's interactions with people on the fringe of society (albeit people on the fringe but squarely in the spotlight) than a tidy history of clinical psychopathy, "The Psychopath Test" in a scant six discs, manages to paint a very nuanced portrait of "the Madness industry." Ronson never stoops to taking sides (although his neurotic allegiances shift constantly throughout the narrative) but he lays his prejudices out for the reader at every turn. Having listened to the book as read by Ronson, I felt I was privy to a bit more nuance than would come through on the page. His dry delivery comes off as a mixture of Neil Gaiman and Woody Allen: a challenge to warm to, but ultimately satisfying and at times hilarious.

My biggest criticism is that the book seems to end just as Ronson is developing his thesis. It felt like it needed more resolution, but perhaps that will come in his next book. Ronson's writing is as much about the author as it is about the subject and he seems content to let his biography play out as it happens. RECOMMENDED