Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake (1980)by Frank W. Abagnale, Stan Redding (Author)
Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Supposedly, a true story. I just didn’t buy it. ( ) Like many people I was drawn to this book after hearing about Frank Abagnale’s story for years and having seen the movie of the same name. About halfway through listening to the book, I began to be suspicious of Abagnale’s story, so I researched the man and his supposed career impersonating everything from a teacher to a surgeon to an airline pilot. Sure enough, the more I found on the real Frank Abagnale, the more obvious it was that not only had he lied to all of the people who supposedly bought his stories as all of these professionals, but he also lied to readers of this book and to Steven Spielberg who was naive enough to make the story into a movie. You see, virtually all of this was made up by Abagnale. And if you do decide to read the story knowing this, you’ll have the same reaction I did: there is no way this guy did this stuff. So, if you happen to see this book at the library sitting on the biography/memoir shelf, tactfully grab it, take it to the circulation desk and suggest to them that they reshelve it in the fiction section. Because that’s what it is, a novel. Not a memoir. I breezed through this one! It is such an entertaining autobiography. Frank W. Abagnale began his career of cheque forgery as a teenager, and the following five years were a whirlwind of fraud, forgeries, and cons, money and women, and spur-of-the-moment (fake) career changes. I watched the movie of the same title years ago, and I just had to watch it again as soon as I finished reading this, but I think the book is far more interesting. It contains a lot more details about a lot more cons than the movie can include. It also gives more information about his experience in prison after he was caught, and his path to his more legitimate career giving lectures on how to catch criminals like him. no reviews | add a review
Has the adaptationHas as a student's study guide
Biography & Autobiography.
True Crime.
Nonfiction.
HTML: Catch Me If You Can is the true story of Frank W. Abagnale—alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, and Robert Monjo—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, passed himself off as a sociology professor, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks—all before he was twenty-one. 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 is a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction international escapades and ingenious escapes make Catch Me If You Can an irresistible tale of deceit. .No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)364.163092Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Crimes and Offenses Crimes of property FraudLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |