Thursday, October 30, 2008

Breakdowns by Art Spiegelman

Spiegelman, Art. Breakdowns. New York: Pantheon, 2008. ISBN: 978037542395.

I just finished reading the reissue of Art Spiegelman's memoir, Breakdowns. This masterpiece is not for the faint of heart--it even has an "adults only" label on the cover. (I don't usually approve of labels, but the artist added it himself.) If you like R. Crumb, you will LOVE Art Spiegelman.

Actually, you probably already know Spiegelman's work. He won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for his amazing book about the Holocaust, Maus, which was followed by Maus II.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor's Tale. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780394747231.

By the way . . .

Tomorrow I am off to the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver, and guess who is going to be there? Art Spiegelman!


I will probably be really shy when I meet him. I'm okay when it comes to talking with musicians, but I get all embarrassed when I meet authors. Books can be so intimate, and I don't like the feeling of knowing too much about someone who doesn't know anything about me.