Jack Engelhard

"Then I got to where I was gonna get off, and got off, the doors closed, and as the train was pulling away she looked right at me and gave me the most incredible smile. It was awful, I wanted to tear the doors open.

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.… (más)

THE ULTIMATE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-RESPECT: JACK ENGELHARD'S SLOT ATTENDANT

My copy of Jack Engelhard's SLOT ATTENDANT came this afternoon. As I was reading another truly engrossing novel at the time and NEVER read more than one book at a time, I set myself the modest goal of reading chapter one today, then finishing the other book tomorrow, thereafter reading this long-eagerly anticipated story solely until completion.

You know what happens to the "best laid plans...." Likely you do in Gaelic as well as English.

What happens is, here it is almost 2AM and I just finished SLOT ATTENDANT. I could NOT put it down. I could not stop until I knew as much as the author cared to tell me about every absorbing subplot, as well as learning heaps about both casinos, in which I have a certain rooting interest, and the world of writing and publishing...a world so important to me and many people I deeply care about.... not until I learned the outcome of protagonist Jay Leonard's desperate battle to regain both confidence in and respect for himself.

Having lost both myself once upon a time, I found myself quickly empathizing with his brilliantly orchestrated struggle. I FELT for this man...Jack Engelhard is that kind of writer...superlatively combining personal experience, the experience of others, and a truly vivid, thoroughly grounded imagination to paint this compelling portrait.

My only negative thought is I wish there were more...more pages I mean...like maybe three hundred or so added to this perfectly-ended [you'll see what I mean when you read it!] novel at page 296 or so.

No, reluctantly I must agree with the author...it ended at absolutely the right point, telling just what it should, not telling the rest. Just right.

The Reader is the King or Queen of this novel. For this is a book fashioned to the unique mind, as diverse as they necessarily are, of each and every one of its readers. Once again, you will see exactly what I mean having read it.

As with any Engelhard novel, the characters are people we've all met in one form or another, yet often driven into way above average moral and practical challenges calling for breathlessly-awaited responses. The dialogue is sharp and engrossing. The elements of both mystery and deeply personal conflict are introduced and compelling from the very beginning. The ending is anyone's guess, and guess you will....it's guaranteed.

In my preview, I opined that this would be a book with wisdom of,by and for writers. And indeed it is. Yet no wisdom was ever imparted more entertainingly...not to mention at times emotionally. The protagonist Jay Leonard shines in his moodiness...his dilemmas...his deep disappointments. He is the product of a life filled with war, boxing, hustling, martial arts, getting the story as a reporter, and playing the ponies. He is also part of a loving marriage whose partners struggle to sustain one another as they share a dream...a dream only he by his choices can ultimately make happen. His choices alone cannot realize the dream, but they could sure destroy it...and therein lies the tale.

Jay Leonard is a writer. He and his wife Melanie's dream is rooted in his writing. Writing is what Jay Leonard personally is about...both his burning passion and the foundation for his self-respect. He had a smash-hit bestseller cum movie six years before...but now cannot get past the same string of rejections that marked his early starving days. He only beats starving now by working as a slot attendant at a casino, the bottom of the pile for someone who walked the red carpet to the applause of adoring fans at his book's cinematic world premiere. Yet it is an identity he is becoming all too comfortable with....a comfort he ultimately knows would kill him...because he's a WRITER.

Through his eyes we see up close and in the face the world of an employee at a gambling casino. We see what this microcasm of life itself is like, populated as it is by people who feel that life has cheated them and are there to set it all right at last...only to lose again.

Surveying his situation, Jay Leonard takes off on Julie Andrews' bright-eyed saying in SOUND OF MUSIC that when God closes a door, He opens a window somewhere. Jay Leonard's take is, "when a door closes, another door closes."

And yet he keeps trying...mostly...and this is the votive force of this story. The reader shortly finds himself caught up with this man's travail as well as with several other intriguing subplots and characters.

For a quick, brisk read brimming with pathos and dignity, humor and mystery, hope and despair, love and lust, corporate autocracy and little guys who won't knuckle under....you won't want to miss SLOT ATTENDANT.

John W. Cassell… (más)