THE MAN WHO HACKED THE WORLD

In this debut memoir, a ghostwriter steps out from behind the scenes to paint a portrait of his larger-than-life subject.

John McAfee—tech pioneer, crypto evangelist, expatriate murder suspect, and two-time presidential candidate—agreed to hire veteran ghostwriter Foster after the author pitched himself as a potential biographer. Foster, who had worked with several members of the crypto community, felt that the controversial McAfee had been misrepresented in the media and wanted to give the man an opportunity to tell his side of the story. As a college dropout with a few false starts in life, Foster saw something of himself in McAfee, the bombastic founder-turned-critic of the computer security company that still bears his name. “Learning his life story, I traveled across the country with him, and later, throughout Europe,” writes the author. “I had even gone on the run with him. Toward the end of our collaboration—a remarkably stormy end—he had even started calling me ‘son.’ ” Foster got a firsthand look at McAfee’s eccentric lifestyle, which included frequent movements to evade the myriad enemies he was sure wanted him dead. The two men eventually “fired” each other and went their separate ways only a year before McAfee was found dead in a Spanish jail cell while awaiting extradition to the United States. (It was an end that Foster ominously predicted for his former boss shortly before it happened.) With this memoir, the author offers his experiences with McAfee in an attempt to explain the man’s psychology, personality, and worldview, providing rare and intimate insights into the way he lived and died.

The writing delivers the urgency found in a political thriller, as here when Foster was forced to sit in a room under surveillance for several hours before he was allowed to meet McAfee in person: “At midnight, the nighttime activity has finally ceased. Nameless people drift off to their rooms or to their houses, and I’m left wired and awake sitting on a huge couch in a huge room staring at a huge TV that shows my reflection, which I no longer hide from.” His portrait of McAfee is rich and multifaceted, presenting a man who is part James Bond villain and part Coen Brothers bozo. Foster himself is a captivating character: a former gonzo documentarian whose ghostwriting career has brought him into the confidences of all manner of audacious, paranoid, and self-aggrandizing men. (The author, at times, comes off as being all these things himself.) The first half of the volume recounts Foster’s youthful adventures, including a period of homelessness in Los Angeles and his induction into the world of ghostwriting. These vivid stories could easily have been packaged together in their own book, and perhaps they should have been, as those primarily interested in learning about McAfee are forced to wait a long while before he appears. This isn’t a flaw, exactly. The engaging memoir captures the convergence of the mirrored worlds of crypto weirdos and self-publishing hustlers, both of which involve a fair amount of mythmaking. It’s a tale completely of this time, and the author is well equipped to tell it.

A sprawling, layered, and engrossing account about the need to control one’s own story.