Published by Gallery Books on 23 Jul 2019
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Sex and the City meets Catch Me if You Can in the astonishing true story of Anna Delvey, a young con artist posing as a German heiress in New York City—as told by the former Vanity Fair photo editor who got seduced by her friendship and then scammed out of more than $62,000.
New York attracts such a wild range of people: artists and bankers, immigrants and transients, old money and new money, people waiting to be discovered and others who never want to be found. Everyone here has a story to tell--some more elaborate than others. But without exception the people have texture, and texture is character, and character is fascinating.
Anna Delvey, the real life Neal Caffrey?? (Where my White Collar friends at?) I had never heard of her before but I was immediately fascinated. But getting conned by Anna is nowhere near as fun as solving white collar crimes alongside the charismatic, good-natured, well-intentioned, HOT Neal Caffrey.
I didn't have a trust fund, or even any savings, but my family had given me all of the love and encouragement in the world--and still, chasing dreams was an unending and treacherous business.
In fact, dealing with Anna was downright stressful. I got stressed reading this book. Anna is a manipulative sociopath and it's impossible to have a productive confrontation with her since her arguments are circuitous and she has a loose relationship with the truth. And Rachel fed into it, getting dragged in circles with Anna's lies, believing that was the same as chasing Anna down for her money ($62,000!). Even to the very end, like, when Anna was finally arrested, it still seemed like Rachel couldn't let Anna go.
And as readers, we were dragged into the mess with her. The repetitive details became frustrating to follow, and it just felt like more of the same. I mean, Rachel must have been beyond frustrated rehashing the same conversations with Anna, not to mention that her livelihood was on the line, so maybe I should be applauding Rachel's ability to bring us to that anxious period in her life through her writing (reading ! this ! was ! stressful !), but I selfishly would have appreciated more synthesis in her account.
Although I don't think I could see myself ever getting into a similar situation to the extreme of getting conned out of $62,000, I do see how Rachel fell for Anna's con at the beginning (and I suppose that finally falling for the big con could be seen as a frog in boiling water situation). The lesson learned is fuck politeness! (Don't quickly cover a bill because of the awkwardness your con artist friend--who has no intention of paying you back--is purposefully creating! lol)
Reading this was stressful and the writing could have been more concise, but the case was fascinating. 3 stars.
If you're interested in the case but don't want to stress yourself out with this book, check out this article about Anna Delvey by Jessica Pressley in The Cut, which was mentioned in My Friend Anna.
