Reviews for THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS by Jon Ronson

The Observer

He has a genius for detail…few more investigative journalists would have had the brilliant bloody-mindedness to get what he has got and hardly any would have the wit to present it with as much clarity…he slips too, very skilfully between registers in tone. Ronson knows exactly what is funny…but he also knows when that laughter begins to look grotesque… an unmissable account.

The Mail on Sunday

Jon Ronson is a dab hand with fruitcakes …He has a sharp eye for jokes, and there are plenty of funny scenes in THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS.

Time Out

Riveting.

The Independent

Chilling… Ronson’s writing is highly entertaining.

The Daily Yomiuri

This is something that hits home, particularly in the context of the ongoing “war on terror”… top-notch journalism.

The New York Times

At the start of the twisted hunt that is THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, the journalist Jon Ronson appears to be looking for furtive, paranoid quacks who play mind games. He seems to have hit the motherlode… Ronson sets his book up beautifully. It moves with wry, precise agility from crackpot to crackpot…[Ronson] remains terrifically adept at capturing the horror of these developments without losing track of their lunacy.

Publishing News – reviewing paperback

Nightmarishly funny.

2/.

Reviews for THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, page 2

The Guardian

Ronson is a very funny writer but he knows when to be serious, and his book is a chilling account of torture being carried out with the willing cooperation of an elected government.

The Observer (Reviewing Paperbacks)

Robson’s prose is sharp and his observations canny.

The Independent on Sunday (Reviewing Paperbacks)

Incredibly funny.

The Bookseller

Amusing but deeply scary.

The Sunday Business Post

Blackly hilarious… Like most genuinely amusing things, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS is funny because it’s true.

The Bookseller (The Bookseller’s Choice)

Ronson has again managed to unearth a vast array of frighteningly bizarre characters and plots that he relates with barely concealed incredulity and his unique brand of understated irony. At once hilarious, stupefying, chilling and downright fascinating, this should be a big seller.

The Times

Simultaneously frightening and hilarious.

The Metro

Funny and gravely serious…Mind-blowing stuff.

3/.

Reviews for THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, page 3

The Daily Telegraph

A funny and tragic story.

The Glasgow Evening Times

Ronson is one of Britain’s very best journalists. One who also happens to be very approachable, highly entertaining and hilarious… A story which is tragic as well as hilarious.

The Manchester Evening News

Mind-blowing! … It is a brilliant book, revealing events which are by turns silly, surreal and sinister.

GQ

Ronson is the best sort of guide – sceptical, but open to persuasion.

Seattle Weekly

As a writer, Jon Ronson is a kind of freakish superbeing who tells drolly observed, gently ironic stories… But he is also a kick-ass, trailblazing investigative reporter…. What makes THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS essential reading is that Jon Ronson can make us laugh in that grateful way where we feel in the moment of our laughter that some measure of perspective and sanity has been restored to the world.

The Globe and Mail

It’s much to Ronson’s credit that, though he lets the madness speak for itself, his deadpan style allows us to laugh and shudder simultaneously at this Catch-22 world. He knows when something is funny, when it’s scary stupid, and when it’s dark, even tragic.

The Boston Globe

A hilarious and unsettling book.