Read this real quick and found it hilarious (the part where he conned the call girl out of $400 had me in stitches) except for the French prison. As to the contrast between himself and his father, somewhere in there he says that he is not going to put any of the blame for how he turned out on his parents, who he said were really good people. So obviously he knows he was truly a bad person, and that he has no one to blame but himself for how he turned out. Which means he kept his moral sense throughout, and perhaps was able to unlearn the lying habit rather quickly once he decided to go straight.
You know, pantom, you may be right. I noticed today that the book is dedicated to his Dad, and Abagnale surely is intelligent. delphica’s point about the book maybe not being about morality is interesting because it just doesn’t seem complete without it–we are going around about how to react to the book because this stuff is missing; so maybe his rehabilitation reflections wouldn’t have just been platitudes. Also, the way the experiences seemed “empty” to him may point to a psyche that was looking for something more, and really could be happy in a workaday world.
Would the Swedish judge have been happy with Abagnale’s subsequent behavior? I would have been pissed by the fact that he immediately escaped again, and I’m not sure I could get over that in the long run.