This was such an interesting read, and it saddens me to see that it looks like it was pulled from publication. The book has no Goodreads or storygraph listing and isn’t available for purchase. I’m not sure what went wrong, but it’s a shame because this is well worth a read.

Touré gives us a tragic history of a friend (maybe this is why the book was pulled?) who seemed to have every advantage, but still ended up on the wrong side of the law. Cliff was a gifted student, smart, charismatic, and educated at an elite prep school and later at Columbia.

It has all the appearance of a man from humble beginnings receiving the opportunity to move up in the world. Yet Cliff’s story ends in a prison sentence for counterfeiting.

It’s hard not to have a little sympathy for Cliff despite the squandered opportunities. And he was, in some ways, applying the fine education he received to a craft of sorts. Obviously nobody should be counterfeiting money, but as a nonviolent crime it isn’t exactly the most morally concerning of infractions, and Cliff certainly got his comeuppance anyway.

As perhaps morally ambiguous as this may be to say, the most frustrating part of his endeavor is how very sloppy he was at times, when he was clearly smart enough and well-informed enough to know better.

And it’s sad, of course, to see a young man who was so capable and had the education to assist him still feel that this was the route that made the most sense for him. It’s a cautionary tale, yes, but it reads more like a tragedy with some really interesting bits about counterfeiting mixed in: