Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

This is my first book in months. And I enjoyed it.

This book is about two of my dream jobs. Espionage and entertainment. Spies and showbusiness. What more can you ask for?

They say that this is Chuck Barris' autobiography, from which the movie with the same title was adapted from. Yeah, okay Chuck Barris can write, with more wit and humor than most writers today, I might add. But still, this is a story chronicling the life of a CIA assassin. I don't know why the CIA never bothered to stop its publication. Well maybe they did, but obviously, they didn't succeed. Otherwise they wouldn't have come out with the movie. On the other hand, perhaps the CIA thought that no one is going to believe Barris anyway.

what makes this a great read is the ease with which one goes through the whole book. There are none of the big words that literary writers love sprinkling in their stories. This is just simple, straightforward storytelling, told in the language of a layman.

And the second thing that makes this great is the juxtaposition (<--that is an example of a big word used by literary writers) of Barris' multiverses (<--yet another big word used by literary writers). The riotous world of television production, the grand lifestyle of Hollywood, and the cloak-and-dagger danger of the life of espionage, all combine to tell the story of one of the most exciting periods in American history. For the true lovers of literature, you can read this without even seeing the movie. In fact, you don't even have to know that a movie version exists. But for those of you who prefer the magic of movies--get a life. Read a book.


*pic from isbn.nu


Rating: Eight and a half out of ten.