Books of Excellence

Bonnie Kaye welcomes back author and journalist Jack Engelhard. His best-selling novel Indecent Proposal, translated into more than 22 languages, was turned into a blockbuster movie starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. The story made him famous as the foremost chronicler of moral dilemmas and of topics dealing with temptation.

DayRay Literary Press recently re-released Jack's book "The Days of the Bitter End" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of J.F. Kennedy's death. The story takes place in New York's Greenwich Village in the early 1960's. It centers around Cliff Harris, a J.F. Kennedy dead ringer, whose lack-luster comedy career launches him into international fame by imitating Kennedy. Cliff finds fame on national television and record albums doing comedic parodies of  the first family. Although he has the fame and fortune that others envy, he longs for recognition of his own talent rather than fame due to imitating the most powerful man in the world. The other characters in the story have well-developed plots that all intertwine and take the reader back to a time in history that feels as authentic as those days just before the loss of innocence of our country.

Engelhard has led a fascinating life which started with his family’s narrow escape from Nazi-occupied France to Canada where they lived in poverty for many years. His biographical book Escape from Mount Mariah featured a story “My Father Joe” which was made into a short film and selected for the Short Film Official Selection at CANNES Film Festival 2011 produced and directed by Nikila Cole. The book also won an award by the MPA for “Excellence In Independence Publishing