Monday, December 28, 2009

The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald ***

Writers constantly remind themselves that real life is rarely good fiction. The Informant: A True Story aptly demonstrates this truth presenting the reader with a day-by-day journal of Mark Whitacre, a brilliantly crazy embezzler. Some sections, I particularly remember the FBI raid on ADM, are page turners, while others, the lengthy period of taping illegal price-fixing meetings for example, are tedious and repetitive.

However, if you've seen the movie or heard the This American Life podcast - they are both representative and faithful to the book and thus the actual events - and want to know more: this is the book for you. The Informant: A True Story is the unexpurgated, unabridged source for the life and crimes of Mark Whitacre.

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