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The Runner: A True Account of the Amazing Lies and Fantastical Adventures of the Ivy League Impostor James Hogue | 
 enlarge | Author: David Samuels
Publisher: New Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $11.47
You Save: $11.48 (50%)
New (23) Used (10) from $10.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 78671
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 159558188X
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.163092
EAN: 9781595581884
ASIN: 159558188X
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
A classic american story of a homeless drifter who tries to start a new life by applying to Princeton University, based on the acclaimed New Yorker article.
Based on one of the most talked-about New Yorker articles from the past decade—soon to be a major motion picture.
On the morning of March 30, 1988, a police detective named Matt Jacobson arrived at a storage facility in St. George, Utah, with a warrant to search for stolen bicycles. Among the stolen goods and dusty athletic trophies in Locker 100, Jacobson also found some recent correspondence showing that the thief, James Hogue, had been dreaming of a new and better life as a person named Alexi Santana—a self-educated Nevada cowboy who could run a mile in just over four minutes and had applied for admission to some of America's finest universities, including Stanford, Princeton, and Brown.
Thus began a classic American narrative of self-invention that falls somewhere between The Great Gatsby and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Hogue's story—how he fooled the Princeton University admissions department, got straight A's, made the Princeton track team, dated a millionaire's daughter, and was accepted into the elite Ivy Club before his deception was finally exposed—turns out to be both an intensely affecting profile of a dreamer and the limits of his dream, and a striking indictment of the Ivy League "meritocracy" to which Hogue wanted so badly to belong.
Taking off from his widely read New Yorker article, David Samuels adds substantial new reporting, telling the sad story of Hogue's itinerant life after he was expelled from Princeton and providing fascinating new insights into the Ivy League's most famous impostor.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 Missed Opportunity June 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Samuels has taken an admirable stab at dissecting this enigmatic Gatsbyesque con man's psyche for motive, astutely tabulating the paltry gain from the years of petty crime. In a funny aside that Samuels to his credit puts in the book, Hogue responds to one of Samuels's elaborate and quirky questionnaires by closing with this jibe: "What's with the janitor garb? Are you trying to show your solidarity with the lumpen?"
The book is an elaboration of a New Yorker article and probably should have stayed as such (much like Barry Werth's Scarlet Professor), as it feels stretched and padded. Although not a great writer, Samuels rightly senses that he holds compelling subject matter. One fault is that the chronology would have been much better as a simple linear progression; it confusingly yoyos between past and future. Also, instead of just letting the story tell itself, Samuels often intrudes with exaggerated veneration of the privilege of a Princeton (or his own Harvard) education, with admissions committees' self deluding liberal smugness, and with largely irrelevant autobiographical items.
Hogue ultimately proves uncooperative and Samuels is left to speculate on his quarry, but perhaps there is no very profound mechanism at work here. Although I have to admit I'm looking forward to seeing the documentary Con Man. One wonders what a Truman Capote or a Norman Mailer might have done with this material.
 Cool Running! April 15, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Just finished reading Samuels The Runner, and literally could not put it down. Wow! What a crazy fascinating story. It's amazing that people like Hogue exist and that people like Samuels can tell their tale so well. I really felt like I was there, meeting Hogue in person. Not sure what the other reviewers problems are... I thought it was great, and so did every other members of my book group (expect Andy, but he hates everything!) Really, this is a five star winner!
A great read, a fascinating story--nonfiction for the fiction lover. April 14, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Some writers can craft a sentence and story; some reporters unearth great detail. David Samuels is that rare talent who can do both, and the result is The Runner, a terrific literary page turner.
A story worth the expanded treatment April 9, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Runner is a engaging read about a fascinating character. The original article was the tip of the iceberg and I appreciated the expanded treatment. David's writing is insightful and funny. The books leaves me wanting more but in a way that keeps the fascination alive. Like a movie with an open ending I am left to wonder about specific events and ponder what it really means to reinvent yourself in a world that is so clearly driven by unfair rules. No one likes to be lied to but sometimes lies can be inspiring.
A New Nonfiction Classic April 7, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book seems particularly relevant right now, with the literary world increasingly falling victim -- practically once a month -- to frauds, plagiarists and con artists. It's the true life story of a particularly colorful specimen. In his late 20's, basically a drifter living in Colorado, James Hogue decided to recreate himself as a charismatic genius and sports hero -- and he used his new identity to hustle his way into Princeton University as an undergrad. He was a complete fake, but as Samuels shows, that doesn't make him any less accomplished. His insane story tells you as much about our times, and about our elite institutions, as it does about the peculiar twists and turns of one individual's particular psyche. In America, the land of self-invention, the con man is often king, and this small book -- just about the same length as The Great Gatsby, one of Hogue's inspirations -- is a wonderful and strangely moving portrait of a true American original. David Samuels is well-known as an award-winning magazine journalist, and this, his first book, shows him at the top of his form. I recommend it highly.
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