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Loading... Indecent Proposal (edition 2001)by Jack Engelhard
Work InformationIndecent Proposal by Jack Engelhard
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. wildly fast paced adventure set against the backdrop of casino gambling and the centuries old battle of the Jewish people for their homeland. nerve-cracking tension accompanies the protagonist, an Israeli war veteran, agonizing over the proposal of an Arab billionaire...and its aftermath. vivid, engrossing reading from start to finish, CONSIDERABLY deeper than the blockbuster movie. no reviews | add a review
Reviewers have called it "powerful" and "brilliant." Newly released for its 25th anniversary edition, Jack Engelhard's novel Indecent Proposal has found its place alongside such classics as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Indecent Proposal remains one of the most widely-read and discussed novels around the world, due to the strong writing and riches that include a moral dilemma for the ages. The novel was translated into more than 22 languages, and Hollywood produced a mega-hit movie based on this book starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. The novel stands as a remarkable achievement from a great and legendary novelist. Though Hollywood only skimmed the surface of Engelhard's masterpiece, the theme is eternal, even biblical - temptation The plot has riveted the world's readers and moviegoers. A destitute couple tries their luck in an Atlantic City casino. The wife, Joan, is utterly gorgeous. She attracts the attention of an oil rich sultan who can buy anything he sets his eyes on. Can he buy people? Can he "buy" Joan? What would you do for a million dollars? Reviews "Precise, almost clinical language...is this book fun to read? You betcha " - The New York Times "The prose is vivid, cool and muscular, the story is great. In all, the fine tension between desire and high moral principal make Indecent Proposal a well-crafted book...well-wrought characters, exhilarating pace...it's beautifully written." - The Philadelphia Inquirer "A gut-wrenching study on love, money and trust." - National Public Radio (NPR) "Written with the sparseness of Hemingway but the moral intensity of I.B. Singer." - Michael Foster, author of Three in Love (HarperCollins) About the Author Contemporaries have hailed novelist Jack Engelhard as "the last Hemingway" and of being "a writer without peer and the conscience of us all." The New York Times commended the economy of his prose... "precise, almost clinical language." His bestselling novel Indecent Proposal made him internationally famous as the foremost chronicler of moral dilemmas and of topics dealing with temptation. Works that followed won him an even greater following, such as Escape From Mount Moriah, his book of memoirs that won awards for writing and for film. His latest novel Compulsive draws us into the mind of a compulsive gambler in a work stunningly brilliant and original, and seductively readable. Engelhard writes a weekly column for The Washington Times. His website: www.jackengelhard.com No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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And I went back every night, same time, for two weeks, but she never showed up.
That was 30 years ago and I don't think that there's a day that goes by that I don't think about her, I don't want that to happen again".
― Jack Engelhard, Indecent Proposal
The books is a masterpiece, a psychological exploration of good and evil and of human nature and is nothing like the movie.
It is not fluff. It is not silly. It is among my all time favorites. I will write more when I have time but the worst thing a reader could do is not take this book seriously, not read it and miss out on an incredible reading experience.
In the book, it explores, very deeply, themes that the movie really sort of..for lack of a better term..blew off. Josh is a speech writer in Philly who hates his life with a passion. He is poor..and at the mercy of the corporate world. He hates his job..he LOATHES it but can see no way out.
As much as Josh deplores his work, that is how deeply he loves his wife Joan. Joan comes from wealth. She is his "mainline blonde" and both of them left their previous spouses to be together. This has left Josh with the fear that happiness can be taken from him at any moment.
Then, while on a vacation. they meet Ibrahim.
Ibrahim is everything Josh would like to be. Arrogant. Powerful. And, most of all, rich. Lavishly, garishly rich. Beyond anyone's imagination rich. He is a king of the casinos, at the top of the one percent, able to blow ten thousand dollars like it is pennies.
And Ibrahim wants something. That something is the wife of Josh..Joan.
Joan is beautiful. And from the moment Ibrahim sees her, he desires her. So he makes Josh an offer. One million dollars for a night with his wife.
And that is where the destruction starts.
Indecent proposal explores so much. Money and status. How much is to much? And will having money satisfy you in the most basic of ways?
Adultery. Can a marriage ever be the same after infidelity? Is it infedelity if the husband consents? And is it prostitution? Can one just take the money and move on?
The fact that Josh is Jewish and Ibrahim is an Arab is fascinating and the cultural themes are explored deeply as well. You can see them in the men's interactions.
Is this "deal" doable? Or will it taint their lives forever? Destroy their innocence? Will they turn on each other..and themselves?
This book is so much more literary than ever given credit for. And it is also deeply, bitterly painful. Because this chapter of their lives will change them in ways they never could have anticipated.
I consider the book a five and the movie a 2. Rarely have I disliked a movie version to this extreme. I read the book way before seeing the movie but seriously the movie was fluff. The book is not. Read it. It is completely and utterly outstanding.
Five fantastic stars. ( )