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The I Index

AMORALMAN: A True Story and Other Lies

Maybe someday

47

/100

I Index Overall Rating

Readers

80/100

Critics

13/100

Scholars

N/A

Author:

Derek Delgaudio

Publisher:

Knopf

Date:

March 2, 2021

Using his youthful notebook entries as a roadmap, DelGaudio embarks on a journey through his own past, stopping at the significant signposts that led him into the heart of a world populated by swindlers, con artists, and card cheats.

What The Reviewers Say

Lauren Francis-Sharma,
The New York Times
In Amoralman, Derek DelGaudio’s masterly memoiristic account of lying and self-deception, we start life fully capable of truth-telling.
Katya Cengel,
New York Journal of Books
Secrets are at the center of Derek DelGaudio’s memoir A Moral Man. There are the secrets he chooses to keep and the ones he decides to reveal. In DelGaudio’s telling, family secrets lead to larger secrets and ultimately to his decision to cheat at cards. It is an interesting premise, and once DelGaudio gets into his journey with sleight of hand tricks it works. What is harder to follow is the family back story DelGaudio offers early on. Real life is less real than what happens when magic enters the narrative, it is the magic that makes DelGaudio’s words magical..
Allen Adams,
The Maine Edge
A rarity, a work of thoughtful, honest self-awareness that isn’t quite like anything I’d ever read before. And believe me – that’s a good thing. It’s a story of truth that is unafraid of untruth, which might sound contradictory, but when you delve into DelGaudio’s words, it makes perfect sense.
David Pitt,
Booklist
Any good memoir includes an element of self-discovery, but this one is all about self-discovery, and the truths unveiled are startling, unsettling, and—strangely, considering their nature—inspiring..