Black and Blue Jew: A Novel

by Chester Aaron

Chester Aaron has successfully wedded the tall tale to modern realism in an entertaining collection of novellas, which, together, tell the unforgettable life story of Ben Kahn. The reader gets to know a remarkable man, a man who is haunted by the stench of war after he champions an unlikely champion, a man who loves and loses his wife only to regain their life together, a man who has a passion for loving and not loving women statuesque and scarred, bitter and generous. A man both of principled self-indulgence and of self-defying principle, Ben finally speaks his mind in a last, desperate attempt to right a decades-old wrong.

179 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Chester Aaron was a prolific American author for both children and adults, and wrote novels, stories, and memoirs. Born in 1923 in the coal-mining town of Butler, Pennsylvania, he was educated at Butler Senior High School, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco State University. He saw combat in World War II, and was with the troops that liberated Dachau. Following publication of his first novel in 1967, he was an x-ray technician at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, CA. He joined the faculty at Saint Mary’s College, retiring as a full professor in 1997. For twenty-five years he cultivated ninety varieties of exotic garlic on his farm in Sonoma County, becoming a world-renowned expert, and publishing a number of books on the subject. He died in 2019.