A review by ldegough
Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale
4.0
*4.5 stars
Comment that I wrote on my Kindle:
"I can't believe that this is a true story!
EDIT: Well, apparently this ISN'T a true story. There's a new book that came out in 2020 all about how this book does not match up with the facts. Which is disappointing, because the Frank Abagnale tricked everyone into believing that he really pulled all of this off, but also... it's kind of obvious that it was highly fictionalized. The story is too dramatic to be real. He had me in the beginning, but by the end I was sure that it was fake.
He IS a con man, though. Just not as cool of a con man as he tries to pretend to be in the book. He did steal money by using bad checks, but he stole it from the parents of a girl he was stalking. (He stalked a flight attendant by pretending to be a pilot.)"
(Note: This is ironic, because in the book he insists that he only conned an individual once. His targets were always big corporations. But in real life, he took money from a family and small local businesses.)
Review:
So, like I wrote in the comment... this is (mostly) fake according to recent evidence published in a book in 2020. Still, it's a good story! I was extremely interested from page one.
I do think that if Frank Abagnale wanted to convince his readers that this all really happened, he should have tried to make it seem less dramatic. The book moved so quickly, and it was difficult to believe that it could have happened like he described.
My main complaint was how Abagnale treated women. He mentioned having a "new girl" every couple of pages, which is extremely excessive. I mean, I couldn't really complain if that was true, because he would just be reporting the facts, but like I already mentioned... this story isn't completely true. He did not treat women well, and he didn't seem to regret that at all, even by the end of the book.
All that aside, however... this guy is a genius for even coming up with this stuff! Even if he didn't really do everything in this book, he did come up with genius plans that seem like they could actually work! I was constantly shocked by the plans that he invented (and supposedly pulled off). I am not condoning his behavior, but you can't help but admire his genius.
This book can be summed up like this: Frank Abagnale is not the world's greatest con man, but his greatest con was tricking the world into believing that he was the world's greatest con man.
Comment that I wrote on my Kindle:
"I can't believe that this is a true story!
EDIT: Well, apparently this ISN'T a true story. There's a new book that came out in 2020 all about how this book does not match up with the facts. Which is disappointing, because the Frank Abagnale tricked everyone into believing that he really pulled all of this off, but also... it's kind of obvious that it was highly fictionalized. The story is too dramatic to be real. He had me in the beginning, but by the end I was sure that it was fake.
He IS a con man, though. Just not as cool of a con man as he tries to pretend to be in the book. He did steal money by using bad checks, but he stole it from the parents of a girl he was stalking. (He stalked a flight attendant by pretending to be a pilot.)"
(Note: This is ironic, because in the book he insists that he only conned an individual once. His targets were always big corporations. But in real life, he took money from a family and small local businesses.)
Review:
So, like I wrote in the comment... this is (mostly) fake according to recent evidence published in a book in 2020. Still, it's a good story! I was extremely interested from page one.
I do think that if Frank Abagnale wanted to convince his readers that this all really happened, he should have tried to make it seem less dramatic. The book moved so quickly, and it was difficult to believe that it could have happened like he described.
My main complaint was how Abagnale treated women. He mentioned having a "new girl" every couple of pages, which is extremely excessive. I mean, I couldn't really complain if that was true, because he would just be reporting the facts, but like I already mentioned... this story isn't completely true. He did not treat women well, and he didn't seem to regret that at all, even by the end of the book.
All that aside, however... this guy is a genius for even coming up with this stuff! Even if he didn't really do everything in this book, he did come up with genius plans that seem like they could actually work! I was constantly shocked by the plans that he invented (and supposedly pulled off). I am not condoning his behavior, but you can't help but admire his genius.
This book can be summed up like this: Frank Abagnale is not the world's greatest con man, but his greatest con was tricking the world into believing that he was the world's greatest con man.