The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for Feb. 4, 2012

Story of a Suicide
Ian Parker, The New Yorker

Two college roommates, a webcam, and a tragedy.

Who in God’s Name Is Mitt Romney?
Frank Rich, New York

The Republican candidate has been running for president for half a decade, but familiarity has done nothing to dispel his mystery. And it’ll stay that way as long as he refuses to discuss his driving passion—his faith.

Burning Man
Jay Kirk, GQ

On his first tour of duty in Afghanistan, Sam Brown was set on fire by an improvised explosive device. He survived, doomed to a post-traumatic life of unbearable pain. Then his doctors told him about an experimental treatment, a painkilling video game supposedly more effective than morphine.

The Doctor Will Sue You Now
Mark Seal, Vanity Fair

When famed dermatologist Arnold Klein, the Father of Botox, landed Michael Jackson as a client, it was a dream fulfilled. But in the wake of Jackson’s death, Klein has been engulfed by a toxic cloud of accusation, litigation, and bankruptcy.

What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind?
Alison Gopnik, The Wall Street Journal

Children today reach puberty earlier and adulthood later. The result: a lot of teenage weirdness. Alison Gopnik on how we might readjust adolescence.

Do-It-(All)-Yourself Parents
Linda Perlstein, Newsweek

They raise chickens. They grow vegetables. They knit. Now a new generation of urban parents is even teaching their own kids.

For more great longreads, check out our friends at Longreads.com.