Rob Z. Says: While I struggled to find any sympathy for the "protagonist" in this tale, it was a thrilling read that kept me wondering, "When are they going to get caught?"

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Product Description

Soon to be a major motion picture -- a no-holds-barred account of the most notorious literary hoax of the twentieth century, written by the perpetrator himself

Before Oprah and TheSmokingGun.com had ever heard of James Frey, there was Clifford Irving. In 1971, he burst onto the literary scene, claiming to have been granted the right to pen the authorized biography of the famously reclusive icon Howard Hughes. Forged documents seemed to bear out his claims, and McGraw-Hill awarded him a contract for the then-enormous sum of $750,000. When Hughes himself emerged from seclusion to denounce Irving as a charlatan, McGraw-Hill stood by their author. It wasn’t until Hughes filed suit, and Swiss bank officials got involved, that Irving finally confessed. The Hoax, first published in 1981, is Irving’s explosive account of his own misdeeds -- and the inspiration for a soon-to-be released movie starring Richard Gere.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #213435 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-06
• Released on: 2007-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781401308544
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"It is a story which reads like the best thriller fiction and which contains the seeds of a dozen movie scripts. Mysterious meetings, false passports, a beautiful Danish baroness, Swiss bank accounts-Alfred Hitchcock would handle the whole thing perfectly." --The Tatler (England) "Fascinating!" --Time "Brilliant!" --Newsday "A Masterpiece!" --CBS-Radio "Spellbinding!" --Publishers Weekly "Sensational!" --New York Daily News

About the Author
Born in Manhattan, Clifford Irving has traveled and lived throughout the world, is married, has three grown sons, and makes his home now on a beach in Mexico and on a Colorado mountainside, where he hugs trees, practices yoga, writes, and paints. Following his release from prison for perpetrating the Hughes Autobiography Hoax, he resumed his writing career. Visit him online at CliffordIrving.com.

From AudioFile
This blockbuster "confessional" by the author of the greatest literary hoax of our time--the "autobiography" of Howard Hughes--was published in Great Britain in 1997 but remained untouched by American publishers until now. When Clifford Irving and his researcher Dick Susskind hatched a plot to write a fake autobiography of the reclusive billionaire, they embarked on a cataclysmic year of double-dealing, corruption, sex, lies, and forgeries. Narrator Joe Barrett is remarkably convincing as the determined author, who finds himself in over his head. Barrett even manages to "sound" fat as Irving's rotund partner-in-crime, Susskind. The surprise scene-stealer is Irving's foreign-born, conniving, money-laundering wife, an impeccable portrayal. No matter what the world thinks of Irving, con man extraordinaire, Barrett makes this book about a bogus book as hair-raising, breathlessly paced, and suspenseful as any spy novel. M.T.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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Customer Reviews

A Whodunit From The One Who Did It
I was a young person at the time of the world-wide controversy surrounding the publication of the Hughes "autobiography," and needless to say it was front-page news.

By this time Hughes had not been seen or heard from by the public for more than a decade and many people felt he was dead, perhaps in an accident around the time he "disappeared." And in the shroud of mystery emerges a book on his life that Hughes granted the author - Irving - unprecedented access through a series of interviews on his life.

Then came the debate on the validity of the book, which was only solved by the eccentric billionaire ending his silence - not in front of a camera, but through a long-distance phone call to a panel of journalists who knew Hughes from years past.

I purchased The Hoax as one who was absolutely fascinated in how Irving nearly pulled off the crime. And if it wasn't for the phone call by Hughes to state the book was a fraud it can be argued that the debate would have continued for years, but Irving's deception would have been successful. The reality was Irving believed Hughes was too ill to repudiate the book.

The Hoax remains one of the favorite books I ever read.

Truth is more Complex than Falsity
This book has the ring of truth to it, and that is unmistakeable. It's the story of a writer who hoodwinked the world by writing the hoax autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes, and paid the price by going to prison. It reads like a novel, in the sense that it's thrilling, and you understand Clifford Irving to the bone. It's well-paced, filled with memorable characters and incidents, and if there were ever a book to nail down the sin of greed in both individuals and corporations, this is it. I loved it.

Incredible thrilling true tale
I had avoided reading this book, although several friends recommended it. Finally I read it, because there's a movie coming out soon (Richard Gere plays Irving) based on the events. I discovered that it's an amazing story about a man who defied and bilked the literary establishment and the Howard Hughes hierarchy and at the same time -- this was in 1972 -- enraged Richard Nixon's White House and may indeed have been the prime reason that the Nixon gang broke into the Watergate (to find out if Irving had given the Democrats secret information about Hughes' "loans" to Nixon).

Yes, Irving was a rogue, but what a delightful and literate rogue. Moreover, the book is one of the best written first-person narratives I've ever read; it's wise and witty at the same time as it's a gripping tale. People wonder if Irving told the truth in the book. I believe it has an unmistakeable ring of truth. You can't fake that, ever.

Clifford Irving's many novels are next on my list.