Depends What You Mean by Extremist

Totes recommend John Safran's latest. Deplorable in the best sense.

Louis Theroux

Safran has always had an unusually receptive antenna for the fraught collision of racial, cultural and religious difference . . . This is an Australia where as soon as you draw a cultural, racial or religious battle line somebody strolls up to smudge it.

James Robert Douglas, The Guardian (Australia)

[Safran’s’ subjects know in their bones he is going to make them look a bit ridiculous, but he is so non-confrontational that they open up like flowers, and the amusing contradictions pour forth.

Peter Kenneally, Sydney Morning Herald

Safran’s latest sees him almost match the ‘gonzo nice’ style of his English peers Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux . . . He’s like the sarcastic punk rock kid of the trio, and the funniest . . . Full of cracking one-liners and Safran’s honest-to-a-fault self-deprecation.

Christopher Sanders, Adelaide Review

An original, insightful, frequently deadpan-funny read . . . John Safran confirms that he's a major writing talent with his second book . . . Like his professional doppelgangers, Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux, Safran has a gift for eliciting information from his subjects by way of his unthreatening yet relentlessly unquestioning persona.

Jo Case, Readings Monthly

The cast of this book – the ‘deplorables’ – is as fascinating as any true crime story. But what might shock you most is the fact that they live in your suburb . . . By understanding these people a little better, hopefully we're gaining the tools to counter them with wit, not weapons.

Rachel Wagner, mamamia.com