Sean Penn on the political relevance of the mysterious Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff

With the presidential election only two weeks away, a mysterious novel from an equally mysterious author is making headlines for its political relevance.

Pappy Pariah’s Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff starts as a story of a recluse named Bob Honey, before quickly turning into a spy thriller, and then finally becoming an all too timely commentary on the state of the political landscape.

“Just the fact that Donald Trump, unnamed, becomes a character near the end, it’s almost apocalyptic,” says Bill Maher in a documentary short about the audio novel. “And it’s funny because it really captures the way that a lot of people are feeling right now in this country, a month before the election. That this could be our last chance to get it right and if we don’t, I don’t know what happens.”

Ordinarily, the debut novel of an unknown author wouldn’t be garnering the attention of Maher and authors like Michael Weiss and Art Linson, but the curious involvement of Sean Penn sure does help.

The Oscar-winning actor tells the story of meeting a strange man nearly four decades ago and not hearing again from him until recently receiving the manuscript for Bob Honey. Penn was so drawn to the material that he decided to put his weight behind the project by voicing the audio novel, which he recently did a surreal live-reading of in Los Angeles.

“When you’re in a world where the sociopath is making more sense than the pundits, you better make some quick changes,” says Penn, who continues to deny assertions that he is in fact the out of sight Pariah.

Watch the video above and listen to Bob Honey for free on Audible.