In The Bible of Dirty Jokes, Eileen Pollack (Breaking and Entering, A Perfect Life) brings to life the hilarious and moving history of Borscht Belt comedy, Catskills resorts, and the notorious Jewish mob, Murder Inc. In a novel that reads like a cross between The Sopranos and a Sarah Silverman special, Pollack bestows on American literature a protagonist for the ages, the wisecracking, starry-eyed, endlessly generous and forgiving Ketzel Weinrach. On a reeling, roundabout hunt for her beloved brother, Potsie, who has gone missing in Las Vegas, she finds herself in ever weirder and more unnerving locations. She uncovers dark family secrets, buried bodies, and repressed memories and comes to see her failed comedy career and her deception-riddled marriage to the late Morty Tittelman, self-styled professor of dirty jokes and erotic folklore, in new and wonderful ways. Pollack’s most inventive book yet, The Bible of Dirty Jokes combines her wry, empathetic commentary on contemporary America with her gift for comic about-turns. Part risque romantic romp, part murder mystery, this big-hearted, provocative book refuses to sit quietly in the corner; its heroine persists through strip clubs, secret New Jersey lockers, and warehouses of ill-gotten Rat Pack artifacts. The way ahead is far from pretty, and Ketzel doesn’t emerge unscathed. But as we travel by her side, we end up one step closer to the answer to the eternal question: Can a woman tell a dirty joke without the joke being on her?
Fiction
The Bible of Dirty Jokes
- From the Publisher
March 29, 2018
Discussion Questions
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