Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries

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Maybe it's a combination of his unusual inflection and non-judgmental honesty, or just the fact that he's there and asking the questions: he comes across as an alien who has just landed on the planet and is trying to figure out Earthlings. The would-be killers, like all students in North Pole high school, answered letters from children all over the world addressed to “Santa, North Pole” under elfish pseudonyms. Even a preface or a meta-essay from Ronson commenting on the book's contents as a whole would contribute needed weight and impact. One of the stories involves a man who killed himself because he got in way over his head with credit card debt; another story involves an inventor who murdered his whole family after his fortune evaporated. He has the ability to ask questions people don't normally ask, and root out surprising responses or telling evasions.

Frantz washes dishes at Miami's Capital Grille restaurant,a posh steakhouse right on the harbour in Miami's financial district. My favourite piece in the book, “Santa’s Little Conspirators”, is the story of a group of 13 year old high-school students in the town of North Pole, Alaska, accused of conspiring to commit a Columbine-style massacre at their school (they were stopped before anyone was hurt). Always intrigued by our ability to believe the unbelievable, Jon meets the man preparing to welcome the aliens to earth, the woman trying to build a fully-conscious robotic replica of the love of her life and the "Deal or No Deal" contestants with a foolproof system to beat the Banker.For Channel 4, Jon has made a number of films including the five-part series Secret Rulers of the World and Tottenham Ayatollah. The only one I'd read before was his cruise with Sylvia Browne, the psychic who specialized in feeding false and harmful information to grieving parents. I initially thought this book to be a collection of journalistic articles on various interesting and zany topics, but I found the "journalism" part to be very lacking. Amber Waves of Green, in which he interviews Americans from 6 different layers of the income strata, provides real insight into how we mentally cope with money no matter how much of it we do or don't have. But Ronson is the kind of narrator who has the gift of making all these stories accessibly human, truly fascinating, and weirdly entertaining.

Jon has fun with psychics, real life super heroes, Stanley Kubrick and Robbie Williams at a UFO conference. His opening piece on the revelation that the hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse has secretly been hardcore Christian all these years was a small piece of essay perfection. Jon meets the man preparing to welcome the aliens to Earth, the woman trying to build a fully conscious robotic replica of the love of her life, and the Deal or No Deal contestants with a fool proof system to beat the Banker.My favourite piece in the book, "Santa's Little Conspirators", is the story of a group of 13 year old high-school students in the town of North Pole, Alaska, accused of conspiring to commit a Columbine-style massacre at their school (they were stopped before anyone was hurt). because that is obviously something that should be included in any chapter concerning the anal rape of underage boys.

Not all of the essays were winners - a longer piece on early attempts at artificial intelligence dragged a bit, and I didn't share Ronson's fascination with Stanley Kubrick's obsessively collected archives. While parts of "Lost at Sea" have been published in Ronson's other books - more than half have been printed in "Out of the Ordinary" and all but one have been printed in "What I Do" - and numerous other articles have appeared in GQ magazine and the Guardian newspaper, for those who've not read Jon Ronson extensively, this is an excellent collection of his journalism in one handy volume.My brother in law is not a reader but I know he will enjoy the different quirky stories with Robson’s inimitable take on things. There are some really funny pieces included such as Ronson's recreation of James Bond's car journey from Ian Fleming's "Goldfinger", eating and drinking everything Bond did on the journey and making himself very sick (Bond, it turns out, was a glutton alcoholic chain smoker who rarely exercised). Each mystery unfolds with a perfect balance of humor and depth, making it an enjoyable read that prompts reflection on the quirks of society. I'm looking forward to expanding my little expedition into the world of weird much further after this book. But Ronson's description of his own muddled feelings towards this leader does perhaps a better job of portraying the problematic dynamics one inevitably finds in groups like this than any objective reporter ever could.

It's the same concept, and even has one or two character crossovers, but is a lot more in depth and better written - Ronson's penchant for simple present tense really grates (in my view) and makes it read like the witterings of a madman more often than not. He is most remembered for his inspirational leadership in the second world war and his rousing speeches urging Britain to fight on.He is the author of many bestselling books, including Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie, Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries, The Psychopath Test, The Men Who Stare at Goats and Them: Adventures with Extremists. But Ronson blithely observes: "Frantz talks a lot about respect and the opposite of respect--humiliation. Jon interviews Ray Gosling, a legendary Northern filmmaker who admitted on BBC East Midlands television to mercy killing his boyfriend decades before. The articles were interesting enough at the beginning but ultimately didn't hold my attention for the duration. Collected from various sources (including the Guardian and GQ) Lost at Sea features the very best of his adventures.