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    The Decent Proposal: A Novel
    The Decent Proposal: A Novel
    The Decent Proposal: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Decent Proposal: A Novel

    Written by Kemper Donovan

    Narrated by Michael Bakkensen

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    An addictively readable debut romantic comedy, drama, and mystery rolled into one, about two very different strangers whose lives become intertwined when they receive an unusual proposition. This is a funny, tender, and enchanting story about love, attraction, and friendship: Jane Austen in Los Angeles.

    A struggling Hollywood producer, Richard Baumbach is twenty-nine, hung-over, and broke. Ridiculously handsome with an innate charm and an air of invincibility, he still believes good things will come his way. For now he contents himself with days at the Coffee Bean and nights with his best friend Mike (that’s a woman, by the way).

    At thirty-three, Elizabeth Santiago is on track to make partner at her law firm. Known as “La Máquina” The Machine—to her colleagues, she’s grown used to avoiding anything that might derail her quiet, orderly life. And yet recently she befriended a homeless man in her Venice neighborhood, surprised to find how much she enjoys their early-morning chats.

    Richard and Elizabeth’s paths collide when they receive a proposal from a mysterious, anonymous benefactor. They’ll split a million dollars if they agree to spend at least two hours together—just talking—every week for a year. Astonished and more than a little suspicious, they each nevertheless say yes. Richard needs the money and likes the adventure of it. Elizabeth embraces the challenge of shaking up her life a little more. Both agree the idea is ridiculous, but why not?

    What ensues is a delightful journey full of twists, revelations, hamburgers, classic literature, poppy music, and above all love, in its multitude of forms. The Decent Proposal is a heartfelt and often hilarious look at the ties that bind not just a guy and a girl but an entire, diverse cast of characters situated within a modern-day Los Angeles brought to full and irrepressible life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 5, 2016
    ISBN9780062446114
    Author

    Kemper Donovan

    Kemper Donovan has lived in Los Angeles for the past twelve years. A graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, he worked at the literary management company Circle of Confusion for a decade, representing screenwriters and comic books. He is also a member of the New York Bar Association. www.kemperdonovan.com

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    Reviews for The Decent Proposal

    3.5/5

    44 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Took me a time to warm up to this. The author clearly won high school prizes for descriptive essays and I found it annoying to be put through this approach again and again as he sought to write the great LA novel. There was little to like about protagonist Richard at the start and he had to just keep telling us how handsome and loveable he is. Did he have to put us through inner discourse about breast and bra size? And has he ever met anyone over 60 to become aware that at 64 you don't have knobbly fingers and shriveled cheeks? But the story was cute and now it's over I have to say he did what he tried to do with the ending. Nice work by the performer who had a subtle range of voices - the ending in particular was perfectly done.
    • 4/5
      Entertaining and highly readable first novel from Donovan. Hoping more will follow
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable while I was listening, but forgettable. The part I liked best were the changes Richard and Elizabeth went through as they socialized with each other. Because they weren't trying to impress each other, they were able to be authentic with each other and discovered hidden parts of themselves.
    • 3/5
      Well, I know it sounds trite, but this book The Decent Proposal "should have been better than it was".It isn't a bad book, and the author has the seeds of being a very good writer, but somewhere down the road. This book really needed a much better editor to reign in the author.The story is basically this: take two people who don't know each other and offer them a prize- in this case 1/2 a million each, if they agree to meet with each other for two hours every week, for a year. Gee what do you suppose will happen between the two?I'm guessing like most movies- of which the author is part of the entertainment industry, where he is a lawyer who represents writers- this book was purchased by the publisher based on the premise, not the finished product. This is the author's first book, and it is painfully clear. There was way too much filler, details, lingo, of life in Los Angeles, that added nothing to the story. Add in wooden one dimensional main characters, and a couple of politically correct beliefs and liberal politics plus all of the predictability and the sudden hidden surprise near the end, and you have The Decent Proposal" Watch for it or something like it at a movie theatre someday down the road.
    • 4/5
      “The Decent Proposal” is an interesting take on a “meet-cute” of two people, Elizabeth and Richard, who are set up by a mysterious benefactor. Each is promised $500,000 to meet with the other over a year - once a week for 2 hours. Nothing else is required, and they both agree to the deal (who wouldn’t?) – and their relationship begins.Their relationship, however, was the least interesting part of the book for me. I much preferred reading about the other people in their lives. Richard has a best friend, Mike (Michaela) who was more fully fleshed out and far more complex than Richard. As she tries to deal with this new aspect of their lives, her emotional struggles deepen what at its core is a completely unrealistic love story. Mike is also the one, not either Elizabeth or Richard, who actually tries to solve the mystery of the “decent proposal”. I suppose there is an element of “Don’t look a gift horse” – but if she was keeping in character, Elizabeth certainly should have spent some time looking into the details of this windfall.On Elizabeth’s side of the aisle is Orpheus, a man who confounds and challenges her tidy and completely compartmentalized life. He is also more fully developed and more interesting than the main characters. It was almost as if Richard and Elizabeth were put into the story to introduce the reader to Mike and Orpheus.But the real love story here is the one with the city of Los Angeles as the love interest. The author’s love (or at least fascination) with the city he resides in comes through loud and clear (even when it is ascribed to a character). The detail, the level of description and intensity about this city, was very evocative and in a way, made me think of “Pretty Woman” (another “meet-cute”) – when the move pulls back from Julia Roberts and Richard Gere and showcases the unbelievable city in which unbelievable stories take place every day.“Even now, at 7 p.m., there were enough children there to constitute aa swarm – limbs flailing, fingers sticky from a day’s worth of churros and cotton candy. Every storefront seemed to be shouting (T-SHIRTS SOLD HERE!! BEST MILKSHAKE IN L.A.!!); every light flashed; every color dazzled; it was as though each square foot of the place had its own set of jazz hands.”The book ends on that note of wonderment as well. “…she could see the entire city at once: indescribable, unquantifiable, contrarian L.A., an improbable pastiche made up of untamed wilderness, cultivated parks, gleaming celebrity mansions, crumbling housing projects, business towers reaching for the sky, strip clubs that barely got off the ground, pristine beaches broken up strategically by acres of shiny metal pipes (what the hell were they? desalination plants, came the answer with unexpected readiness), luxury automobiles, industrial ships, brightly colored buses, a surprisingly elaborate grid of subway lines, and people – so many different kinds of people – thrown together in a mishmash of neighborhoods with no heart because its heart was everywhere: a sum greater than its parts.”This is a love story, yes, nominally of two people, but truly one that is about love of place. Delight, amazement and adoration of the incredible City of Angels.