Until recently, I hadn't read very much non-fiction, but a few months ago, I picked up The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, and got a little bit hooked. So, this is my most recent foray into the real world, this time with BBC journalist Louis Theroux.
I had never seen Weird Weekends, seeing as it was first broadcast before I was born, but the book gives a good idea of the tone of the show. It's a reunion tour of sorts, where the reader travels with Theroux and meets his band of oddballs first-hand.
Each chapter is a meeting with the subject of a previous documentary, and tells the story of locating them (or not) and then their experiences since appearing on television. It evolves into a brief character study, with the wonderings and insights of the author to supplement it. Often, these sections are enjoyably honest and interesting, even when all there is to say is that the person remains a mystery.
In some ways, it's the personal style which makes the book. Theroux is upfront and honest, with his funny and insightful opinions punctuating the book, on anything from the food at a gathering of UFO abductees to enlisting the help of a neo-Nazi to find his laptop.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone who has previously watched Weird Weekends, as the book spends a lot of time rehashing the events of the series. The idea of the "reunion tour" was to see how each of the band of weirdos had changed, and the answer is that often, they hadn't. For some people, this might seem unsatisfying, but to me it just seemed the most realistic.
Funny and strikingly honest, The Call of the Weird is enjoyable as a first-time reader, but not something I would revisit.
YOU ARE READING
Book Reviews
Non-FictionCarried over from my Tumblr, this is a personal project tracking what I read through time, largely because of my awful memory. These aren't long reviews, but the books are varied, and the opinions are honest, so I hope you enjoy.
