MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor Frankl

While teaching MAUS, Art Spiegelman's brilliant graphic memoir about his father's experiences in the Holocaust, I had this idea that I should reread Frankl, which I hadn't read in many years. I still found Part One, in which Frankl documents his time in the camps, an achingly humanizing account. I still found Part Two, Frankl's theory of Logotherapy, something I felt compelled to slog through in tribute to the author. That said, this book is essential reading, though Frankl is a better idea man than writer. I find Primo Levi's THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED the most eloquent and potent work on this subject.