Finished reading Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich a couple of days ago. I definitely enjoyed it. Its a good book and I recommend it (as well as his previous book - Bringing Down the House).
He is a good writer and is excellent at making a true story seem very much like a novel. While I'm sure he takes liberties with many of the details (not only to make it more exciting but also to hide identities) I still trust we are getting the main ideas behind the story right.
My complaint with this book is that the last few chapters, everything the book is ramping up to, seem way too rushed. We get very few details of what happened and how it happened (e.g. how Malcolm comes up with the idea for the huge trade, how he actually executes it, how the Yakuza were involved, etc etc.). Again, I understand he cant explain everything without giving away his sources. But I was still a little disappointed by his quick treatment of these important points. (By comparison, Bringing Down the House had a lot more detail about key points. For example the methods used to count cards.)
But I still recommend it. Great story.
Comments