The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos
by Mark Chiusano
View on GoodreadsGeorge Santos said he was a Wall Street high-flier from a wealthy family with Jewish ancestry. He was raised in Queens by working-class Brazilian immigrants. Chiusano, whose Newsday reporting uncovered much of the story, asks how that invented life reached Congress and why exposure only made him more famous.
Core ideas
- A string of cons: Check-fraud charges in Brazil, money taken from relatives including his grandmother, and a pet-charity scam sit alongside misused campaign donations.
- Institutions failed: The book examines how a résumé this invented, down to a false claim tying his mother to 9/11, got all the way to Congress.
- A very American con: He belongs with other contemporary con artists, and exposure made him a symbol of wider distrust in politics, the book argues.
Published2023
Pages320
ISBN9781668043677
ReadDec 2023
