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The local library has a copy of cartoonist Art Spiegelman's remarkable book In the Shadow of No Towers, a collection of newspaper-page-sized responses to 9/11, greatly influenced by early NY newspaper cartoons and supplemented by a sampling of them. It's full of black humour and wit, almost absurdism, as when he recounts his panicked rush to collect his daughter from her school near Ground Zero (his wife can only say "Nadja" over and over) only to (eventually) be brought the wrong girl. No-one can grasp what's happening or respond appropriately, at the time of the crisis or in its aftermath. The Katzenjammer Kids run around with burning Twin Towers on their heads; Uncle Sam throws a bucket of oil over them. Art hides under a flag: "I should feel safer under here, but - damn it! - I can't see a thing!". In one sequence he recounts how he grew, then shaved a beard, drawing himself as the Maus mouse in the last panel: "... issues of self-representation have left me slack-jawed." (He also appears as a baby!Maus-cum-Little Nemo. "Hush, you fell out of bed, sweetie." If only.) But I think my favourite bit is his confrontation with the Jew-hating Crazy Lady, whose madness he imagines escaping to create the 9/11 nightmare. For some reason I've found cartoonists' responses to the atrocity the most affecting and healing. I'm not sure I'd describe No Towers as healing, though, it left me in low spirits, but it's rich and fascinating.

By spectacular contrast, I'm also reading Pride and Prejudice, and finding it hard to put down - it's a hoot!

My PC monitor keeps dimming and brightening. Last legs!