Geoffrey Mak, author of Mean Boys, explains our new age of cruelty—led by personalities as wide-ranging as Donald Trump and Elliot Rodger—and how we can pivot to power that encourages generosity.

Queer Chinese American writer Geoffrey Mak takes the personal essay to new, and sometimes unsettling, heights, in his book "Mean Boys: A Personal History" (Bloomsbury, 2024). Described as a "memoir-in ...