The Castle - Jon Ronson

The story of The Castle begins when author Jon Ronson receives a series of unsettling text messages from his son Joel, who had been lured to a mysterious castle in the middle of nowhere in New England. This event sparks Ronson's curiosity about the property owner, Chris Mark, who turns out to be a divorced, bipolar scion in his 60s who lures women to the Playboy Mansion-inspired castle.

What follows is a darkly comic investigation of Chris and various other men in various states of unravelling. There's “Manosphere Man” Dan Bilzerian, who posts himself on Instagram sitting on thrones next to lions and dining on private yachts with near-naked women. Ronson also witnesses disgraced actor Armie Hammer in the midst of a hedonistic spree. All of the men he meets seem to be stuck in a state of powerless, purposeless anxiety.

Hilarious and entertaining, this is an incisive look at how unmoored and disaffected many men have become in this world of collapsing institutions and perverse incentives offered by social media platforms.

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Who wrote it?
Jon Ronson

How does it come?
Paperback, 21.5 x 13.5 x 2.5 cm approx, 304 pages.