Can I read A Jew in Love on EtoBox?

A Jew in Love by Hecht, Ben is a work of literary fiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is A Jew in Love about?

In June 1931, New York publisher Covici Friede announced that A Jew in Love, a new novel by Ben Hecht (1894-1964), had been banned in Canada and in bookstores in Boston and other American cities.Anyone who opened the book — the front page of which described the Jewish protagonist as “a dark-skinned little Jew with a vulturous and moody face” — might reasonably have concluded that its many antisemitic caricatures were its main objectionable feature. Not so: it was the heretical utterance that “God is a pain in the ass” that sparked the various regional bans.(The last three words of the offending phrase were removed from subsequent editions.) [This scan is of the fifth printing . Contains the text "As far as I'm concerned God gives me a pain," on page 316]Despite the controversy and the book’s low artistic merit, A Jew in Love quickly sold 50,000 copies and made the bestseller charts of 1931, even as leaders across America denounced Hecht as a “self-hating Jew.” He likewise drew their ire for making public pronouncements that ridiculed American Zionists for “raising nickels for a lot of God damn stinking Jews in Palestine.”http://www.billgladstone.ca/the-strange-case-of-ben-hecht/

Who reads A Jew in Love?

Author

Hecht, Ben

Publisher

Covici Friede

Published

1931

Language

EN

ISBN

9781258800246

Category

work of literary fiction

Subjects

Literary Collections, Humanities

Updated

2026-03-25