Jon Ronson is fascinated by people who are bonkers. And insane people who appear to be normal, and ostensibly sane people doing crazy things. The British journalist’s book The Men Who Stare at Goats — about a secret U.S. military wing that hoped to use mind power to walk through walls, become invisible and perform psychic executions — was the basis for the 2009 film of the same title.
Now, Ronson’s paddling around the swampy parts of sanity again in The Psychopath Test, a book that manages to be as cheerily kooky as it is well-researched.