A hilarious overview of the methods people use to get even with big business, government and enemies. These dirty tricks range from the simple to the elaborate, including more sophisticated schemes devised by CIA and Mafia members and political dirty tricksters. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT TRY THESE AT HOME. ALL OF THIS IS JUST IN GOOD, CLEAN FUN.
I got this book back in the 80's. Still have them (there's a second "Get Even II"). The tricks are for entertainment purposes only, but WOW, are some of the jokes and tricks clever. I still have them somewhere in a box - and hope to review my notes someday.
In this work the author compiles his own ideas and combines them with other classical ideas that were taken from a series of books mentioned by the author himself in the bibliography section. As other reviews mention, some ideas are smart and some are lame. But surely it must be recognized that this book was the beginning of an entire literature dedicated to getting even and sabotage. Some readers may take it as entertainment to laugh at, but others, whether they are victims of bullies or unscrupulous merchants, may take it more seriously (being careful as most ideas in this book are not legal). It should be said that the work has a second part, and it was also banned in many bookstores in the wake of the USS Iowa turret explosion incident in 1989 (one of the implicated in perpetrating the attack had this book among his possessions).
This book has a lot of ideas about how to get back at people or corporations. For example, if you are mad at a bank, you know they hate students so you put an ad in the student newspaper offering all these free services, etc. - later all the students show up and they are angry at the bank and the student newspaper for lying to them.
Another example is going to the bank and getting a safety security deposit box and then putting a fish into it. Let them deal with the smell. They will probably have to drill into the box to get it.
Most of the tricks seem to boil down to getting others to be misrepresented in a way that other facets of society go after them. Like putting a classified ad in the newspaper offering sexual services or making a sign offering something with the phone number of your mark.
This book was funny and written so long ago that most of its suggestions are no longer viable. It was mentioned in another book I had read. I remember Hayduke from The Monkey wrench Gang and my curiosity was piqued.
I grew up hearing about George Hayduke and his books on revenge tactics, so when I noticed this title available on Kindle Unlimited, I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the hype.
The so-called “tricks” swing wildly between childish pranks and downright cruel schemes—many of which could easily land someone in legal trouble. A few ideas stood out as mildly clever, but they were the exception rather than the rule. Overall, I found the book more disappointing than entertaining.
The tricks in the book are all fun and games, but what ticked me off was this man casually throwing around the word "rapist". Like sir, what the hell do you mean by a "land rapist"? Call me over-sensitive, but please can we not go around throwing around the word like this?