This book is all about hyperbole--subtitled 'The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History', it is meant to get us interested ASAP. The author wrote the books that led to two major motion pictures: 'The Social Network' and '21', so he is no stranger to writing what Hollywood wants--and this book was optioned before I even got a chance to read it.
The things I found interesting about this book were probably not what the author was heading for--the ease with which Thad Roberts went from college drop-out with a young wife to NASA employee with a research career. That part of the story is not well-fleshed out, except to say that Mr. Roberts did not leave college because he couldn't handle the material--Mr. Mezrich is the self-proclaimed teller of stories that involve crack-pot geniuses, and Mr. Roberts sought him out to tell his story as a result. The character of the man who engineered the moon rock heist is not well described--he is portrayed as almost a Robin Hood, a man with no nepharious aims other than to 'give his girlfriend the moon'--but that doesn't sit well with the facts (I disagree with the across-thepboard pan the New York Times review gave this book, but this point we agree on), but if you like action movies that glide along the surface of the truth, and a very short summer beach read, this is a fun book to crack.
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