Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding: Catch Me If You Can

Random House

$26.95

Review: Gilbert Wong*

A true crime story. Abagnale, a confidence man, never short of that quality in telling his own story, was a master of kiting (or writing bad cheques).

We've all sent off a cheque certain there are not the funds to cover it; but Abagnale's efforts aimed to break the bank.

In his brief years as a conman before retirement at 21 (yes, that's right) he wrote some $US2.5 million worth of bad cheques and on the proceeds lived a very comfortable life.

This is a picaresque tale and the reader, who would probably loathe Abagnale in person, can't help but grin at his cheek.

He travelled America and the world, posing as a Pan Am pilot, relying on the courtesy system airlines operate that allows flight staff to hitch free rides.

His skill as an impostor was good enough for him to tour Europe as a pretend pilot with a bevy of young college students whom he had fooled into posing as stewardesses.

The reason? Pilots usually travel with crew - the elaborate subterfuge was intended to make him more believable, though the risks escalated accordingly.

For much of his story there is the need to suspend disbelief that someone as young as 19 could fool people twice or more his age, including the many women he claims to have slept with.

The exploits become more and more outrageous. Circumstance led him to pose successfully as an experienced surgeon in charge of an emergency ward and as an academic at a university.

Much of his success can be attributed to the times he operated in. Now happily married and in his 50s, he committed his exploits more than three decades ago, at a time when there was considerably more trust in the world.

That this world no longer exists and large companies commonly operate their premises like a medium-security prison can partly be laid on people like Abagnale, a wolf among sheep.

There is an odd undertone to this tale. To con, he could never be honest or real to those he called his friends and lovers and his is a persona that could bear that constant deception.

He defends his crimes by saying he never ripped off an individual, only big companies, but what of those he lied to?

* Gilbert Wong is the Herald books editor.