Review & Giveaway: Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson

Title: Lost at Sea

Published: Picador November 2012

Synopsis: Jon Ronson is fascinated by madness, extraordinary behaviour and the human mind. He has spent his life investigating crazy events, following fascinating people and unearthing unusual stories. Collected here from various sources are the best of his adventures. Frequently hilarious, sometimes disturbing, always entertaining, these compelling encounters with people on the edge of madness will have you wondering just what we’re capable of.

Status: Read from November 01 to 02, 2012 — I own a copy {Courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia}

My Thoughts:

Journalist, documentary maker and author Jon Ronson is well known for his fascination with the unusual. Lost at Sea – the Jon Ronson Mysteries is a collection of essays reprinted from sources such as Ronson’s <i>Guardian</i> column and GQ Magazine, about the extraordinary idiosyncrasies of humanity.

Divided into six parts Jonson explores, amongst other themes, faith, passion, celebrity, justice, success and failure. He interviews a robot who is said to be on the cusp of consciousness, a broadcaster whose on camera confession of murder proves false and the real life super heroes who patrol during the early morning hours on the city streets of America. He attends the court proceedings of a man accused of cheating at Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, a week long NLP training course and joins a cruise in the hopes of speaking to a celebrity psychic with a poor track record and a bad attitude. He creates alter ego’s to assess the strategy of financial direct marketing, investigates the fate of a Disney cruise line worker and travels to The North Pole, Alaska where everyday is Christmas, but not everyone is able to maintain the Christmas spirit.

Ronson approaches each adventure with an open mind, curiosity and compassion, though it’s not always easy to tell whether he is laughing at his subjects or with them. He is often provocative, asking difficult questions and playing devil’s advocate yet he gains the trust of his subjects with surprising ease. Some of these stories are a damning portrait of society and it’s hypocrisies, others offer intriguing insights into cultural behaviour, but it is the individuals at the core of each story that are compelling.

Fascinating, absurd, moving and tragic, often all at once, Lost At Sea is a compelling expose of human foibles. I found it difficult to put down and I am eager to read more from Jon Ronson.