Indecent Proposal

In college, at NYU, I wrote a short story about a man who arrives home unexpectedly. He is happily married and his wife utterly loving and devoted to him and no, he does not catch her in bed with another man. But this: he hears her talking on the phone saying, "Oh, he's such an asshole."

He turns and never goes back home, devastated to the end of his days.

...
"I'd get it fixed."
I had to explain that there always had to be something wrong with you and if you fixed what was wrong something else was sure to go wrong that was even worse.

это из Indecent Proposal by Jack Engelhard. see also Meyer Wolfsheim

там неплохие диалоги, например со слов "She was face up, eyelids set tight against the sun." книжка гораздо интереснее, чем его же The Girls of Cincinnati (see bad taste)

So now I sat there like this but said to myself, Remember Amalek. Do not forget. --pg 66

italics in the original.

the book is very similar to In Love by Alfred Hayes, see a couple of quotes here, especially the first one. the huge difference is that Engelhard's protagonist is a Jewish Knight in Shining Armor ©yhs. интересно, есть русский перевод?

“Too much modesty,” she said, “is a form of conceit.” - где-то мне это уже попадалось

continued