One of the best ways to explore a complicated subject is to write a story about it. Stories can’t get much more complicated than showing how to live a virtuous way of life.
Author Ben Brooks has attempted to explore this complicated subject with “The Greatest Possible Good,” a touching and funny story about how each member of a miserable family struggles with their happiness and how to make the world a better place.
Meet the Chadwicks
The Chadwick family, parents Arthur and Yara, and their children Evangeline, 17, and Emil, 15, are having dinner in their luxurious, 600-year-old home near Stroud, England. It’s filled with the latest smart home technology and reclaimed antiques tastefully repurposed for decor accents. Everyone is eating food that probably costs an arm and a leg. While the home may be of the highest caliber, the people inside are quite another story.
Emil is the kind of son any parent would want, perfectly balanced with some not-so-nice aspects. He’s a prodigy of mathematical theory, but he’s also seriously exploring narcotics. His late-night surfing on the ocean has reduced his attention span to almost non-existent levels, and he can’t remember the last time he read a book.
Evangeline still reads but almost entirely about subjects like effective altruism and post-Soviet poetry. She frequently pauses during the meal to spout factoids about the horrible effects of economic inequalities on children in developing countries and how their family is a cancer on the Earth. The others don’t pay much attention; they’ve become inured to her constant activism.
Yara is waiting for the right dramatic moment to assert her righteous authority over the family and discipline-shame Emil. She’s discovered a secret stash of drugs he’s bought online (LSD and MDMA, or ecstasy), and can’t wait to lower the boom on him. Meanwhile, Arthur is absentmindedly watching a housefly, oblivious to everything else. He’s a non-entity in his own home.
The dissolution of this family seems imminent, and, yes, it does happen—but in an unexpected way. The same night, Arthur takes a walk outside in his robe and slippers, carrying one of Evie’s books and Emil’s drugs. He doesn’t come back for four days.
The Missing Husband
It takes Yara some time to realize her husband is missing, only realizing it when a business associate calls her in a panic. Arthur’s on the cusp of selling his timber company, something he’s been working on for years, and he’s a no-show.
Yara doesn’t entertain the idea that he might have run off somewhere. “He didn’t have a secret life or the latent potential for assembling one.” She thinks of her husband as “straightforward and toothless and endearingly, clumsily, apologetically upper-middle-class.” Something must have happened to him.
The police eventually locate Arthur at the bottom of a nearby abandoned and forgotten mineshaft, where he had accidentally fallen. He sustained head trauma and broke a leg, but is seemingly otherwise unharmed.
Afterward, he begins to act very strangely. He’s reading many of Evie’s books on altruism, asking questions about moral virtue, talking about using the family money to help the less fortunate, and claiming he’s never felt better in his life. Yara immediately suspects brain damage.
What Is ‘The Greatest Good’?
What follows is a multithreaded story about how each member of the Chadwick family copes and redefines themselves after Arthur’s transformation. Like it or not, their worlds have become destabilized and fractured. Perhaps some of Arthur’s newfound altruism has rubbed off on them as well.
We watch as Arthur explores the idea of dedicating his life to helping as many people as he can. But how will his new philosophy affect his family? Or is it even a consideration for him?
Her husband’s new outlook has shattered Yara’s quest for stability and safety. She tries to shift gears, rebuilding her life and her family into something better, stronger than before, provided she can keep the bank account intact.
Evie’s momentum toward becoming a socialist/anarchist (albeit an incompetent one) stalls. You’d think she’d be ecstatic that her father had embraced some of her core philosophies, but she barely acknowledges it.
The sudden change in family dynamics jolts Emil out of his exile from reality. He tentatively begins connecting with some fellow students. He makes an unlikely friendship with an older homeless woman named Alice. For both of them, the opportunities for self-destruction still loom large.
Each member of the Chadwick family is earnestly trying to become their best possible version, but none of them has the essential awareness needed to be very good at it. Watching their journeys is both stirring and hilarious.
Ben Brooks, a writer of TV shows as well as YA and children’s books, wrote his debut novel, “The Greatest Possible Good,” for a mature audience. It’s an extraordinary start and the type of book that stays with you for a long time. Highly recommended.
‘The Greatest Possible Good‘
By Ben Brooks
Simon & Schuster: July 15, 2025
Hardcover, 336 pages
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