“Dear Jack,” writes a reader, “when’s the last time you wrote something funny?”
Those days are gone when I wrote funny, or when anyone wrote funny.
“That’s too bad. You were famous for your light touch.”
I was young.
“In your great novel, Indecent Proposal, you describe Joshua Kane as being a flaming Zionist. Does that still describe you?”
Absolutely.
‘’But I notice a sense of despair in your latest works. I think you are less hopeful than you used to be.”
True, I do get weary. Especially when I try to write something uplifting but turn the page to find Zorhan Mamdani staring me in the face, him and all the smut that comes with him.
“Not funny, right?”
I don’t even try anymore. I just got out of the hospital. No more doctors. Only robots.
“Maybe that explains your despair?”
There is more than that to get you down.
“What is really bothering you?”
Which way Israel after I’m gone.
“You mean, after Bibi is gone.”
Yes, will his replacement be some lefty ready to deal away Jerusalem. I foresee this darkness, and I won’t be around to write about it to stop it.
“Do you really believe there is such power in your words?”
The writer has to keep trying. He never knows what will succeed but he has got to keep rolling the dice.
“So this is what has you so upset…who will follow Bibi. Have you written about this?”
Yes.
“Enough to make a difference?”
That’s the whole point. You never know.
“But you do have many readers.”
Each one with his own concerns.
“So why keep on?”
Because the survival of Israel depends on me, me and me alone. Thus speaks the heart of a writer.
Now available, a collection of Jack Engelhard’s op-eds, “Writings.”
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the anti-BDS thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
From the esteemed John w. Cassell: “Jack Engelhard is a writer without peer, and the. conscience of us all.”