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Overview
From the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and So You've Been Publicly Shamed comes a darkly comic trip to the furthest reaches of the masculinity crisis His only child is lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England late one night, sending Jon Ronson on an extraordinary adventure into a dark world of unmoored men desperately searching for purpose and control--whatever the cost. With zero warning, the crisis of masculinity and its bizarre, wrecking-ball manifestations had crashed into Jon's life. As his investigation deepens, urgent questions come to light: What exactly is "Princessing"? Why did a lawn care influencer dress as a baby in front of billions of online viewers? How did a paid-up member of the Skeptic Society derail his life in the name of a warped vision of chivalry? And, more pressingly, why are two recently released murderers on their way to pay Jon a visit? In our rapidly changing society, many men have become detached from reality; some are behaving like separatists, while others have fallen deep down ideological rabbit holes. Is this a complete fracturing of society, a new era of disinhibition where anything goes? Drawing on his trademark brand of humor, psychological insight, and unrivaled prescience, The Castle marks Jon Ronson's long-awaited return to the written page in his darkest and most insightful book yet--one where he throws open the doors to the Castle and reveals a new lost generation of men.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781594634208
- ISBN-10: 1594634203
- Publisher: Riverhead Books
- Publish Date: September 2026
- Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.95 pounds
- Page Count: 336
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Rudyard Kipling’s 1910 poem “If” gives some simple advice on becoming a man: “If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, / If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, / But make allowance for their doubting too; / . . . you’ll be a Man, my son!” Yeah, that ship has long since sailed, as Jon Ronson aptly demonstrates in The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men. Ronson, the indomitable Welsh author of The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats, returns from a decade’s absence from print with a disquieting hybrid of Scott Pelley and Spalding Gray, outlining how many of us bearing the Y chromosome have become tragically unmoored. He kicks off with a surreal account of his son Joel’s misadventure at a party in Connecticut, which his friend, a nightlife promoter, was invited to. When they arrive, they find a newly built, Gothic-style castle whose wealthy owner, a Gilded Age scion in his early 60s named Chris Mark, may or may not be making a reality television show featuring young women dressed to resemble medieval-style “princesses” (“I’m the lord,” Mark informs them. “I’m looking for my queen and I’ve got one hundred and one princesses to choose from”). Further investigation by Ronson reveals not only a ketamine-addled paranoiac who threatens lawsuits and bodily harm if his secrets are exposed, but also a story of intergenerational wealth gone terribly awry. Ronson goes on to investigate toxic masculinity through numerous stories, returning to Mark and the titular castle throughout. In one memorable instance, he presents a meticulously documented depiction of a YouTube creator whose initial success filming lawn care videos spirals into a frenzied quest for viewership via a scheme involving his two young daughters that results in multiple visits from child protection services, not to mention social and financial ruin. Along the way, Ronson introduces statistics that reflect both the purposelessness men experience and the ubiquity of social media in their lives: According to a 2022 study, 41% of Gen Z New Yorkers plan to pursue influencing as a profession, with a fifth of the males in that group naming influencing as their sole career choice. Furthermore, the Brookings Institution estimated that one in nine men between 25 and 54 are not merely unemployed, but not even looking for jobs. The author doesn’t spare himself either, musing on how writing this book has restored his somewhat fragile sense of utility in a society that he fears may be passing him by. In broadening his investigation beyond the castle owner, he got to explore “this wider landscape of men losing their footing in the world, falling out of time—mostly because I was, to be honest, very scared of becoming one myself.” The Castle is by turns funny and frightening, dark and disarming. It’s a cautionary tale of our times that deserves to be on the shelf of any reader who seeks to make sense of the perplexing, and sometimes toxic, manosphere.
Rudyard Kipling’s 1910 poem “If” gives some simple advice on becoming a man: “If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, / If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, / But make allowance for their doubting too; / . . . you’ll be a Man, my son!” Yeah, that ship has long since sailed, as Jon Ronson aptly demonstrates in The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men. Ronson, the indomitable Welsh author of The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats, returns from a decade’s absence from print with a disquieting hybrid of Scott Pelley and Spalding Gray, outlining how many of us bearing the Y chromosome have become tragically unmoored. He kicks off with a surreal account of his son Joel’s misadventure at a party in Connecticut, which his friend, a nightlife promoter, was invited to. When they arrive, they find a newly built, Gothic-style castle whose wealthy owner, a Gilded Age scion in his early 60s named Chris Mark, may or may not be making a reality television show featuring young women dressed to resemble medieval-style “princesses” (“I’m the lord,” Mark informs them. “I’m looking for my queen and I’ve got one hundred and one princesses to choose from”). Further investigation by Ronson reveals not only a ketamine-addled paranoiac who threatens lawsuits and bodily harm if his secrets are exposed, but also a story of intergenerational wealth gone terribly awry. Ronson goes on to investigate toxic masculinity through numerous stories, returning to Mark and the titular castle throughout. In one memorable instance, he presents a meticulously documented depiction of a YouTube creator whose initial success filming lawn care videos spirals into a frenzied quest for viewership via a scheme involving his two young daughters that results in multiple visits from child protection services, not to mention social and financial ruin. Along the way, Ronson introduces statistics that reflect both the purposelessness men experience and the ubiquity of social media in their lives: According to a 2022 study, 41% of Gen Z New Yorkers plan to pursue influencing as a profession, with a fifth of the males in that group naming influencing as their sole career choice. Furthermore, the Brookings Institution estimated that one in nine men between 25 and 54 are not merely unemployed, but not even looking for jobs. The author doesn’t spare himself either, musing on how writing this book has restored his somewhat fragile sense of utility in a society that he fears may be passing him by. In broadening his investigation beyond the castle owner, he got to explore “this wider landscape of men losing their footing in the world, falling out of time—mostly because I was, to be honest, very scared of becoming one myself.” The Castle is by turns funny and frightening, dark and disarming. It’s a cautionary tale of our times that deserves to be on the shelf of any reader who seeks to make sense of the perplexing, and sometimes toxic, manosphere.