"We Were Talking Jewish": Art Spiegelman's "Maus" as "Holocaust" Production

Abstract

n the final comic set piece of Philip Roth's novelistic memoir about his relationship to his father, Patrimony: A True Story, Herman Roth attempts to cajole his author-son into helping one of his card-playing buddies from the Y get his memoirs of World War II published. Philip is understandably resistant-especially as his father has regularly asked him over the years to aid other aspiring authors of books about home mortgages or annuity funds. Of course, a book about the Holocaust is different, and Philip even admits that he has taught Holocaust memoirs and briefly knew Primo Levi.