Maus

Maus is a classic graphic novel based on the author’s experience of interviewing his father Vladek about his experiences during World War II, when he and Art Spiegelman’s mother Anya, who subsequently committed suicide, were interned in a concentration camp. What makes Maus an unmissable empathy book- aside from its brilliant, deceptively simple graphics and the comparative rarity of something that makes you see the Holocaust in an entirely new light- is the struggle that Art has with his difficult and evasive father, whose values frequently clash with the more bohemian outlook of Art and his wife, and whose penny-pinching ways and hypochondria frequently bring Art into fits of chain-smoking, barely suppressed rage. But Art still tries to reach out to his father, and not just for his own sake. The book itself is an act of rehabilitation and resurrection for Vladek, though it’s hard to see this practical, resourceful and open-hearted young man and the damage done to him by horrors that Art admits he probably couldn’t endure himself. At times, Art’s neuroses are hard to take, but he is as unsparing with himself as he is with others- more so, perhaps- and the two-part graphic novel continues to haunt and dominate the entire corpus of Spiegelman’s work, both a blessing and a curse that he clearly wishes he could be rid of. This squeamishness and desire to leave the story alone are present in the original strips that inspired Maus, and the story’s tension derives from the writer’s simultaneous desire to understand his father and to run away before the story he grew up with causes him and his children any more pain than they need to suffer. It’s an exceptional story, but it’s also recognisable to anyone with parents.

Comments

Changed my relationship with my father

Maus is totally extraordinary. It really changed by relationhip with my father, who survived living in Poland during the Second World War. Spiegelman's struggles to understand his father's wartime experiences and talk to him about it resonated with some of my own struggles to really comprehend what my father went through. 

Rating: 
5

brilliant

this book is genius for retelling the holocaust in comic strip. a must read. 

Rating: 
5

Big story

Big events explored with excellent characterisation.

Rating: 
5

A heartfelt but not

A heartfelt but not sentimental history

Rating: 
5

A great graphic novel

A heartfelt but not sentimental history

Rating: 
5

Interesting and quick read

Great book for understanding the human relationships during the war and the cartoons are excellent. However, I felt that Art Spiegelman focused on extracting the story from his father rather than developing a real understanding of why his father behaved as he did.  

Rating: 
4
4.8
Average: 4.8 (5 votes)
Author(s): 
Art Spiegelman
Year: 
1991
Book type: 
Country: 
America
Poland