Fiction in Flight: Rereading Joy Comes in the Morning after The Best Minds

Abstract: This article offers a comparative reading of Jonathan Rosen’s 2023 biography, The Best Minds , and his 2004 novel Joy Comes in the Morning. Because both books tell substantially similar stories, including their attention to a young man suffering from schizophrenia, the comparison offers an unusual opportunity to explore the affordances and limitations of fiction and nonfiction for telling stories about mental illness and its effects. In the novel, the character’s schizophrenia is presented in terms of its effects on the novel’s other characters. Drawing on close readings and an interview with the author, this article suggests reading The Best Minds as a corrective attempt to tell the previously fictionalized story again, in a way that gives more respect to a person suffering from mental illness and to the victims of his violent acts.