Frank W. Abagnale, Stan Redding
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By: Wheeler Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 283
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
An embellished story of a fake 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
'Catch me if you can' is a fairly entertaining, badly written fiction book that served as a base for a very entertaining, well directed fiction movie. It's not an amazing true story as the blurbs proclaim.
Don't reach for this book if you want to read a true-to-fact autobiography. 'Catch me if you can' is a ghostwritten, highly embellished in style and content, largely implausible narrative that diverts from what probably really happened as much as the Spielberg movie diverts from the book. In words of Abagnale himself:
'I was interviewed by the co-writer only about four times. I believe he did a great job of telling the story, but he also over dramatized and exaggerated some of the story. That was his style and what the editor wanted. He always reminded me that he was just telling a story and not writing my biography. This is one of the reasons that from the very beginning, I insisted the publisher put a disclaimer in the book and tapes.'
I have yet to find this disclaimer in my copy. I like fiction and don't mind reading it as long as the author (or the publisher) doesn't try to sell it as a true story. Reading 'Catch me if you can' I had an increasing feeling that I was being conned. I swallowed all the tall tales of his forgeries, swindles and impersonations hook line and sinker, but the devil, as usual, is in details.
Funnily my suspicions were aroused only when I found out he was fluent in French despite the fact that a few pages earlier he used an interpreter to communicate in that language.
The description of his incarceration in a French hellhole of a prison is unbelievable to the point of ridiculous, but still the time is extended from 6 months he purportedly served to about one year.
Then he's rescued by a Swedish policewoman Jan Lundström. Fine. I understand that all names in the book have been changed but Jan is a male name in Sweden. At this point I couldn't suspend my disbelief any longer and I put the book down unfinished.
A few words about the style of writing. It's about as overdone as the facts it's supposed to desribe and nearly unreadable.
Editorial Review:
Frank W. Abagnale, alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, and Robert Monjo, was one of the most daring con men, forgers, imposters, and escape artists in history. In his brief but notorious criminal career, Abagnale donned a pilot's uniform and copiloted a Pan Am jet, masqueraded as the supervising resident of a hospital, practiced law without a license, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks, all before he was twenty-one.
Known by the police of twenty-six foreign countries and all fifty states as 'The Skywayman,' Abagnale lived a sumptuous life on the lam -- until the law caught up with him. Now recognized as the nation's leading authority on financial foul play, Abagnale was a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction international escapades, and ingenious escapes -- including one from an airplane -- make Catch Me If You Can an irresistible tale of deceit.
Performed by Michael Cerveris
