Exploring the intersection of food, culture, and identity, this book analyzes how taste functions as a form of emotional and cultural expression. It delves into the influences of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and social class on the culinary choices of literary characters and narrators, highlighting the unique ways recipes and food writing convey deeper narratives.
"In 1992, Art Spiegelman's two-volume illustrated novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale was awarded a special-category Pulitzer Prize. In it, Spiegelman tells the gripping story of his father's experiences in the Holocaust. The book portrays the trials Spiegelman's father endured as a Jewish refugee in the ghettos and concentration camps of Poland during World War II, his difficulties assimilating to American life following his immigration to New York, and the author's own troubled sense of self as he grapples with his father's history." "Ten scholars explore many aspects of the pivotal work, including Spiegelman's use of animal characters, the influence of other 'comix' artists, the role of the mother and its relation to gender issues, the use of repeating images such as smoke and blood, Maus's place among Holocaust testimonials, its appropriation of cinematic technique, its use of language and styles of dialect, and the implications of the work's critical and commercial success."-- Dust jacket