Art Spiegelman shattered the conventions of comic books and Holocaust literature with the publication of “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel
Like Budd Schulberg\’s \”What Makes Sammy Run?\” Phillip Roth\’s \”Portnoy\’s Complaint\” and other milestones of Jewish American literature, Will Eisner\’s \”Name of the Game\” explores the depths of Jewish self-loathing and assimilation. But what separates \”Name\” — a tale chronicling two immigrant families that merge through marriage for social advancement and then suffer destructive consequences — from the others, is that Eisner\’s work is a comic book.\n\n
\nThe French box office workers were decidedly underwhelmed when Jewish American playwright Donald Margulies arrived for the opening of his \”Dinner With Friends\” at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees in Paris last year. Impatient with his pidgin French, they brusquely shooed him aside to wait on native patrons. \”It was just so French,\” notes Margulies, who was once dubbed \”my Jewish playwright\” by impresario Joe Papp. \”They knew who I was. They just didn\’t have any time for me.\”
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