Lost at Sea - Jon Ronson

Lost at Sea

By Jon Ronson

  • Release Date: 2012-10-30
  • Genre: Social Science
Score: 4
4
From 107 Ratings

Description

The New York Times–bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson writes about the dark, uncanny sides of humanity with clarity and humor. Lost at Sea reveals how deep our collective craziness lies, even in the most mundane circumstances.

Ronson investigates the strange things we’re willing to believe in, from lifelike robots programmed with our loved ones’ personalities to indigo children to hypersuccessful spiritual healers to the Insane Clown Posse’s juggalo fans. He looks at ordinary lives that take on extraordinary perspectives, for instance a pop singer whose life’s greatest passion is the coming alien invasion, and the scientist designated to greet those aliens when they arrive. Ronson throws himself into the stories—in a tour de force piece, he splits himself into multiple Ronsons (Happy, Paul, and Titch, among others) to get to the bottom of credit card companies’ predatory tactics and the murky, fabulously wealthy companies behind those tactics. Amateur nuclear physicists, assisted-suicide practitioners, the town of North Pole, Alaska’s Christmas-induced high school mass-murder plot: Ronson explores all these tales with a sense of higher purpose and universality, and suddenly, mid-read, they are stories not about the fringe of society or about people far removed from our own experience, but about all of us.

Incisive and hilarious, poignant and maddening, revealing and disturbing—Ronson writes about our modern world, the foibles of contemporary culture, and the chaos that lies at the edge of our daily lives.

Reviews

  • Decent

    3
    By BigD!!!!
    A quick read. At times interesting. Not the best read of the year. Just decent.
  • Captivating yet Unguided

    4
    By AbelsonAD
    The stories within this book are intriguing and unique, yet there seems to be a missing underlying storyline. As an investigative journalist, Ronson presents these stories in an honest fashion with minimal bias and deductions. I felt at times that an overarching plot or some more personal input from Ronson would have helped. Overall, great book, a must read. Also note, great book to read in bits and pieces. Because the book has individual stories, you can read one and pick the book up months later(which I doubt you will wait) and not feel lost...at sea.
  • Engaging

    5
    By UnkyDwain
    Disjointed, thought provoking, enlightening, disappointing and stupefying. I don't envy your job Ron.
  • Fascinating!

    5
    By sdali92
    Such a an amazing book!