Cyril Kersh

The Aggravations of Minnie Ashe Cyril Kersh

'The funniest book I have read for months ... a marvellous book' - Sunday Express

'A great comic novel.' - The Evening News

'Excellent.' - Birmingham Post

'Hilarious.' - Sunday Times

'Astonishingly funny.' - Daily Sketch

The story of a young Jewish boy growing up in London on the eve of the Second World War, The Aggravations of Minnie Ashe is peopled with the zaniest cast of characters you're likely to find anywhere: Uncle Mendel, a 'business genius' whose get-rich-quick schemes (like selling Hebrew-Croat dictionaries) invariably fail; Iron Foot Yossel, utterer of ridiculous quotations and absurd prophecies; Rachel Tsimmus, the rabbi's wife with a bizarre rubber fetish; Uncle Ben, the shellshocked war hero with a penchant for picking tulips off the wallpaper; and Mrs Cooperman, horrified at her recurring nightmares involving men's legs. And then there's Minnie herself, a daunting and dauntless widow, fiery, loquacious, and superstitious, beset on all sides by a seemingly never-ending series of 'aggravations'. You'll find yourself cheering for this unlikely heroine as she faces each crisis, fighting her battles with relish and persevering by means of sharp logic and an even sharper tongue.

In this brilliant first novel, Cyril Kersh (1925-1993) displays a talent for comic fiction equal to that of his more famous older brother, Gerald. Hailed by critics on its original appearance as one of the funniest novels to appear in years, The Aggravations of Minnie Ashe (1970) returns to print for the first time in more than 40 years in this edition, which includes a new introduction by Séamas Duffy.