‘I’m the king. I’m looking for my queen, and I have 101 princesses to choose from…’
Jon Ronson is one of our finest gonzo journalists and I’m always first in line whenever he releases a new book or podcast and so it was with some excitement that I greeted The Castle, Ronson’s latest foray into the world of publishing. And yet, having read The Castle, for the first time I came away from one of Ronson’s projects feeling pretty underwhelmed…
Ronson’s first book since So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed in 2015 revolves around Chris Mark, an eccentric figure who owns a sprawling fairy tale-esque castle that he seemingly uses exclusively as a means to attract pretty young women. As a self-styled Hugh Hefner wannabe, Mark makes for a pleasingly unhinged protagonist, helped along by the fact that he has a personal connection to Ronson (the writer’s son inadvertently found himself in Mark’s castle one night and it was this interaction that led to Ronson writing the book), which makes it even more disappointing when the book peters out somewhat rather than finishing with a flourish.
Subtitled Adventures in a World of Unravelling Men, The Castle allows Ronson to use Mark and his castle as a gateway for touching upon subjects as disparate as disquieting YouTube content for children, the masculinity crisis and his old friend Graham Linehan (the two are now very much adversaries). While some of this seems to link only tenuously to the subject matter (one chapter devoted to an aborted interview with Armie Hammer seems to be included only because Ronson couldn’t find another home for it), it’s all captivating stuff, and while it’s not in the same league as some of the British writer’s best work (which is slightly disappointing considering the long gap between the publication of this and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed), The Castle is still vital reading and confirms Ronson’s status as one of the more essential non-fiction writers of his generation. The underwhelming conclusion aside, I mostly loved The Castle (I devoured it over the course of a week), and despite taking on a well worn topic (the masculinity crisis has been covered in depth pretty much everywhere), Ronson is always able to give something a fresh spin that ensures that his work remains compelling.