Giving someone a book as a gift is an iffy affair. Fortunately, someone took the chance and gave me a copy of MAUS. Now, because of the impact that book had, I quickly purchased Art Spiegelman's latest book, In the Shadow of No Towers.

A visiting cousin-in-law, upon learning that my father had guarded German officers on trial for war crimes after Germany fell in WWII, thought that I might be moved by a comic-book style historic look at the war called MAUS.

Art Spiegelman, through Felix the Cat style cartoons with animal and human characters, had told the story of his parent's experience in the ghettos and concentration camps of WWII.

At first, I thought the idea of chronicling their experience in such a way was grotesque. It was only after getting past the first page that I realized that sometimes the only way to chronicle the grotesque is through the grotesque. Such was the case with MAUS. I highly recommend that book to anyone who wants to try to grasp the kind of thinking that can lead to genocide, and the kind of spirit it must take to live through such a nightmare.

My father, who guarded German officers as they were placed on trial for war crimes at Dachau, rarely speaks about the atrocities he heard of through the testimony at those trials. He has spoken briefly about how some of the officers laughed as their crimes were described. Yet despite being an American Jew, guarding Germans who had tortured and slaughtered Jews and then laughed about it, my father did nothing to harm these men. Justice would eventually call for some of their lives through the hangman's noose. Still, what differentiates those who can be influenced to torture and kill and those who defy what some call our natural bent? These questions came up again for me recently given the tortures and murders at Abu Garaihb in Iraq.

Art Spiegelman illuminated these same questions brilliantly in MAUS, and perhaps some of the answers. Now, having lived through the conflagration of the Twin Towers in his hometown of New York, he has taken on that tragedy in his latest book.

Let there be no doubt before you decide on whether or not to buy this book, that Spiegelman has an opinion to express with which President Bush and Vice President Cheney might take offense. Given the nature of America's divide on our response to the nightmare of September 11th, there are plenty who would join George and Dick in their reaction. I found myself, however, powerfully moved by the contents of this book.

The attack against the United States was perverse. Our reaction to that attack has, in many ways, been perverse. The holocaust was perverse and Art Spiegelman is an artist who can bring the perverse to light, make you look at it in a way you never dreamed you might, and then get you to think.

I'd always wondered how someone who had written about, experienced the effects of, or truly studied the holocaust could so easily support our war on terror and the idea that if you didn't give 100% support to your President you were a traitor. Wasn't absolute obedience to the government and absolute trust in whatever they said what allowed 6 million Jews to be killed? Yet there are those in my midst, who should know better, who say that in a time of war you should never question the Commander in Chief, never protest against the war, never write letters to the editor against the war, never do anything that could hurt the morale of our troops.

Well, Spiegelman's book disregards the concept that during war one should check your brains at the door and pick up your crayons. Instead, he engaged his brain at the door and picked up his paints. The results are thought-provoking, chilling, and sometimes even funny.

You can order this book from Kepler's, a locally owned small bookstore that will ship the book right to your door. You'll be helping keep small independent bookstores around by buying through our link, but don't worry. No matter how many copies of this book you buy, I promise you that it won't be helping the terrorists. Freedom, according to the President, is what the terrorists hate. Freedom to express ourselves and read the expressions of others is ours to keep and folks like Art Spiegelman help to remind us that sometimes, it isn't pretty, but it is quite profound.