Post­ed by Nat Bern­stein

It took oppo­site jour­neys for a moth­er and daugh­ter to each find them­selves at the start of their adult lives: one need­ed to leave France to dis­cov­er her­self; the oth­er need­ed to return to Paris to dis­cov­er her fam­i­ly — the side that ​“didn’t have deal­ings with the Nazis. They occa­sion­al­ly trad­ed goods with the Nazis,” as her grand­moth­er insists.

The oth­er side, as you may have guessed, is immor­tal­ized in the three-vol­ume graph­ic mem­oir Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. Lest you think I’m going on a car­toon­ist craze after last week’s fea­ture, Nad­ja Spiegelman’s mem­oir has lit­tle to say about her father or his work. Instead, I’m Sup­posed to Pro­tect from All This is about the rela­tion­ship between Nad­ja and her moth­er, New York­er art direc­tor Françoise Mouly, strained by the echoes of Mouly’s own upbring­ing between two eccen­tric par­ents and the fam­i­lies that raised them, in turn. 

Relat­ed Content:

• In Love With Art: Françoise Mouly’s Adven­tures in Comics with Art Spiegel­man by Jeet Heer
• Miran­da Rich­mond Mouil­lot: How to Ask
• Tah­neer Oks­man: ​“Where Should the Sto­ry Begin?” The Worlds of Holo­caust Graph­ic Memoirs