So readable -- I couldn't put it down. I saw the film a long time ago and didn't remember most of the cons. I love processy crime books. ( )

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. ( )

It was definitely really good but the embellishment to the story of the movie was better I thought ( )

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. ( )

This book is Frank W. Abagnale’s ghost-written memoir of his fraudulent activities from age 16 to 21 in the 1960s, primarily impersonating a pilot and cashing bad checks. It provides insights into how a con artist thinks. I have my reservations about believing the entire narrative without skepticism, as some of these episodes sound like “tall tales.” He offers no proof and there are no footnotes.

For me, this book is just ok. I would have enjoyed it more if it had not included so many demeaning references to women – it got tiresome. I am glad he turned his life around. I am also glad society has changed since the 1960s.
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