Rahul Raina is the author of the new novel, How to Kidnap the Rich.
At CrimeReads he tagged seven "favourite books about hucksters, hustlers, con men big and small, desperate for their own piece of the action." One title on the list:
The Big Con, by David MaurerRead about another entry on the list.
The original con man book, vastly influential across literature and film. The DNA of post-war American entertainment looks vastly different without professor of linguistics Maurer’s dive into the criminal demi-monde of the 1930s. Con men and novelists are of course the same creature, creating false realities out of thin air that their audience can end up pledging their lives on. Every Gryffindor tattoo is testament to that. Maurer’s background leads him to write down the patter, the lies, the dialogue verbatim, and is an utterly invaluable historical document. Much of the modern mythomania around finance, art, cryptocurrency, AI, sounds like it came straight from the book.
The Big Con is among Chuck Klosterman's ten top books to make you unconventionally smarter.
--Marshal Zeringue
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