I spent a late night recently rereading the two books of Maus, drawn in by Spiegelman’s painstaking work and narrative craft, revolted by the cruelty represented and evoked there, and humbled by his parents’ resourcefulness and luck in their survival of the war. The books are part, but not all, of his histories and points of view, and you’ll want to make sure you get to this:

Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novelist Art Spiegelman is in residence at the Heyman Center for the Humanities for the Spring 2007 Semester. He will speak about “Comics—Marching into the Canon” on Monday, April 9 at 7pm. This event, which is free and open to the general public, will take place in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library. (Click here for a map.) [Columbia University, Broadway at 116th St. on the 1 train.)

Maus and other factual accounts of the Holocaust seem almost the only response to stories like that of Binjamin Wilkomirski, a faker whose compelling/appalling story is recounted by Blake Eskin in his eloquent examination of the tale (and tales) of Wilkomirski, who, for a while, appeared to be Eskin’s family’s long-lost relative. The book is called A Life in Pieces, and it stays with you; it’s another facet of the last century’s particular madness as well as another testament to the necessity and heroism of setting the record straight.