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Catch Me If You Can | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Broadway
Category: EBooks
List Price: $9.95
Buy New: $7.96
You Save: $1.99 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  282 reviews
Sales Rank: 5750
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.163092
ASIN: B000FBFMHU
Publication Date: November 19, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Amazon.com Review
When this true-crime story first appeared in 1980, it made the New York Times bestseller list within weeks. Two decades later, it's being rereleased in conjunction with a film version produced by DreamWorks. In the space of five years, Frank Abagnale passed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in every state and 26 foreign countries. He did it by pioneering implausible and brazen scams, such as impersonating a Pan Am pilot (puddle jumping around the world in the cockpit, even taking over the controls). He also played the role of a pediatrician and faked his way into the position of temporary resident supervisor at a hospital in Georgia. Posing as a lawyer, he conned his way into a position in a state attorney general's office, and he taught a semester of college-level sociology with a purloined degree from Columbia University. The kicker is, he was actually a teenage high school dropout. Now an authority on counterfeiting and secure documents, Abagnale tells of his years of impersonations, swindles, and felonies with humor and the kind of confidence that enabled him to pull off his poseur performances. "Modesty is not one of my virtues. At the time, virtue was not one of my virtues," he writes. In fact, he did it all for his overactive libido--he needed money and status to woo the girls. He also loved a challenge and the ego boost that came with playing important men. What's not disclosed in this highly engaging tale is that Abagnale was released from prison after five years on the condition that he help the government write fraud-prevention programs. So, if you're planning to pick up some tips from this highly detailed manifesto on paperhanging, be warned: this master has already foiled you. --Lesley Reed
Product Description
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, passed himself off as a college sociology professor, 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 is 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.
The uproarious, bestselling true story of the world's most sought-after con man currently in development as a DreamWorks feature film.
"I stole every nickel and blew it on fine threads, luxurious lodgings, fantastic foxes, and other sensual goodies.I partied in every capital in Europe and basked on all the world's most famous beaches."
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 277 more reviews...
 Living Outside the Box October 9, 2008
Frank Abagnale did what we all fantasize doing: getting away with messing up with the system as long as we can get away with it. He took advantage of loopholes and people's greed. If he wore a different label, let's say, "secret agent" or "bank executive", we would never condemn him but rather envy him; instead, we call him criminal. I'm glad he thought quickly on his feet and wound up becoming a "security consultant". Still taking advantage of the system and greedy people!
Catch Me October 6, 2008
We enjoyed this movie. Do not buy just because you are a Tom Hanks fan, you will be disappointed, but movie is fun.
 Good, entertaining, but... October 3, 2008
Billed as true crime or as an autobiography, but when the author admits he's the perfect liar, I found I had to read this as a novel, because I doubted a lot of what he writes. If he's so good at the con, how is this book any different. As a novel, it's entertaining at first, repetitive after awhile, and offers no clear climax. A very hard book to judge, although I gave it three stars because it is engaging somehow. The lying, conns, and sexism are hard to accept, and the author doesn't seem to feel bad for all the people he conned. Difficult to like, impossible to hate?
 An embellished story of a fake May 15, 2008
'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 Lundstroem. 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.
A Real Kick in the Head April 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I gave it 4 stars only because I reserve 5-star ratings for books I could not have lived without reading, so to speak. But it is a fascinating account, and if you like knowing that it's a big world out there with people doing interesting things, you'll probably enjoy this book. Abagnale is obviously intelligent and likes to have fun -- an infectious combination. I'm interested now in reading his follow-up, The Art of the Steal: How to Protect Yourself and Your Business from Fraud, America's #1 Crime. I suspect his advice will be more helpful than the dispirited, obfuscating "instructions" of the credit reporting agencies!
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