Catch Me If You Can

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Summary: Catch "this book" If You Can
Review: "Read this book. No, truly, read this book"-Tom Hanks

No one said it better than acclaimed actor Tom Hanks. Catch Me If You Can is one of the most entertaining books of the twentieth century. Never before have I read a book where I laughed so hard. Abagnale successfully mixes comedy with action to hook the reader from beginning to end.

The book starts with Frank W. Abagnale, Jr., a 16 year old boy in a pretty well off family. However, his mother leaves his father and takes the kids with her. Franks feels sorry for his lonely father, so he moves in with him. Within a few months, Frank has already stole $3,400 from different gas stations. As soon as he "earns" enough money, Frank moves out and enters the real world.

The rest of the book deals with Frank's (or "Robert's") hilarious stints as a pilot, lawyer, doctor, FBI agent, and college professor. What makes the book even funnier, is the amount of money he steals and the people he encounters.

I read this book as often as possible and never get bored of it. The only problem with the book is towards the end, which gets kind of depressing. However, overall, this is the greatest book I have ever read and hope that Abagnale's other book is just as good.

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Summary: Fascinating settings, outrageous outcomes
Review: As a light, trip-through-the-tulips novel, Catch Me could hardly be more entertaining. Settings are great, the chases engaging, and the outcomes outrageous. As a truly informative document, though, this novel leaves a little to be desired. Heavy concentration is on forgeries, a blatantly, overtly illegal act. Much of the other activities described also fall into that category: the airline pilot, the lawyer, the college prof., etc.What America must face is the fact of modern day cons becoming more and more "legal." Yes, this trend is proceeding at an alarming pace, making it necessary for everyone among us to be better informed of these developments. For pure education on the subject of schemes, scams, and frauds, as practiced, present-day, Les Henderson's Crimes of Persuasion is second to none.Highly recommended for all "fine print" detectives, who want to nail down the specifics of how so many cons are carried out.

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Summary: ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOKS
Review: At least 12 years ago after hearing Mr. Abagnale's exploits discussed on the radio, I read this book. I've repeatedly encouraged others to read this audacious autobiography. Suffice it to say, the long-awaited movie with DiCaprio and Hanks didn't begin to depict Mr. Abagnale's insanely uninhabited early life. It's unlikely the most illustrious writer of fiction could create such hilarious hijinks and unnerving escapades. Mr. Abagnale's many off-the-cuff impersonations and miraculous escapes were astounding, especially for someone too young to vote!
Read the book. You won't be disappointed.

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Summary: Great read!
Review: Frank Abagnale can teach us a lot about human nature.

this book is quite interesting.

but one never really understands what made abagnale tick.

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Summary: Catch Me If You Can
Review: Frank Abagnale jr. is a criminal master mind. He finds quick scams to make fast large amounts of money. For him to scam, he must study and plan out how to do so with out getting caught. Like a tiger studing a deers moves before he attacks. Abagnale started his scamming at a young age. His first victum was his own father. He faked many important jobs. It was his way of survival on this earth.

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Summary: Crime tales from a most adventurous angle
Review: I don't know how much poetic license came into play. But regardless, it's a terrific tale. I'm just glad he's now on the right side of the law...we hope.

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Summary: "I Was a Teenage Con Man"
Review: I love a good (...)scam, ever since I saw The Sting when it first came out. So I can't believe it took me this long to get around to reading Catch Me If You Can. I saw the movie first, and it was great. But the book is better.

Abagnale goes into great detail about how he pulled off his frauds and this really made it click for me. In spite of all the intracacies of bank ins-and-outs, for instance, the story moves fast. You just can't wait to find out how Abagnale will get away with his current scam or if he will finally get caught. He actually does spend some time in prison and even that is fascinating, if a more than a little gritty.

Even if you've seen the movie, you will want to read this book, because the stories Abagnale tells are a notch better than the ones in the film, if only because things get condensed in a movie. The story of how he recruited a phony batch of stewardesses for a European tour, which was a good scene in the movie, was much better in the book



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Summary: A fun read
Review: I picked this book up on a Monday and finished it the following afternoon, reading at work and on breaks. The story was really interesting. It was simply amazing how much Frank Abagnale was able to get away with. Its kind of like the old US Army commercial...Frank Abagnale did more in four and a half years of his life then most people do with all of their's! I could not believe how lucky he got; how easily he was able to slip in and out of identities. A great novel. One of the amazing things is the fact that it took over twenty years for the film to be made. An interesting story and a fast read. You won't want to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: I read Catch Me if You Can in one, day, and found myself not able to put it down. I was mesmerized by the compleling story that is so well put forth. The writing style is very easy and laidback, more like talking to the person then reading the chronicle of their life story. As I read the book I found myself wishing I could get the gory details. Overall however, while it still left many holes, which may never be completely answered, I liked reading the book to almost compliment the movie. I throughly enjoyed it, and while it may be bland at times, you learn about the slyest of the sly and the trickyest of the tricksters.

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Summary: an incredible book!! Highly recommended!!
Review: I'll admit it. I never would have read this book if it was not for the movie that came out last year. I still haven't seen the movie but decided that perhaps the book would be interesting since it was written by the subject of the movie. I didn't learn until the end of the book (in a Q&A section with the author) that this was written in 1980. Abagnale has a very easy going style and it almost feels like he is right there next to you telling you this wild story of his youth.

Catch Me If You Can is an interesting, exciting, fast paced novel that is a pure joy to read. I don't know if I can put it better than that. This was a book that I simply did not want to put down and I flew through the book. The plot of the memoir is the criminal career of Frank Abagnale (he has since paid his debt to society and now works to prevent exactly the sort of crime that he once committed). Frank Abagnale was a con man. He began his career at a young age (15) conning gas station attendants to give him cash when he pays with his father's credit card. The leads to Frank leaving home, moving to New York City and trying to begin an honest life. Unfortunately, Frank's one main vice is women, and to be with women he needs to have more money than a 16 year old high school dropout can earn. So he begins to con.

Frank's primary method of conning was passing bad checks. However, he found that it is easier to make the con if he is a member of a well respected profession. Frank researches every role that he plays so that he will be as convincing as humanly possible without actually having to do that job. In some cases, he was able to con so well that he was paid for it and he didn't have to forge checks. The professions that Frank had impersonated were: Pilot, Doctor (he was paid to be on staff but not actually have to practice for nearly a year), Lawyer (he managed to pass the bar on his third try and worked as a laywer despite having no background in law), and a Professor (he taught two summer courses). The reason everything worked so well was that Frank is an extremely smart man and nobody expected this sort of con.

As was expected (and as Frank expected), he was eventually caught (and escaped, and was caught again), and part of the book dealt with Frank's ride through the prison systems (France and Sweden play prominent roles).

I can't say enough good things about this book. It was so interesting to read and I would recommend it to anybody.