The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale

Series Info/Source: This is the complete Maus graphic novel. I got a copy of this as a Christmas Gift. Thoughts: The dense writing style and heavy lined black and white artwork were a bit intimidating at first but once I got started reading the story I didn’t even notice it or find it hard to read. This story is completely engrossing. Spiegelman does an amazing job of alternating between the past and the present and recounting the intense and sad story of his father living through the Holocaust. What amazed me is he did in a way that was incredibly impactful without ever being too dark. I was completely engrossed in this book from page one. And I quickly grew to love Maus’s father and his family. I was continually surprised how much of Maus’s father’s survival was because of how resourceful his father was. His father is extremely adaptable and takes on every chance he has to learn a new skill, this (along with quite a bit of luck) is the number one thing that leads to him surviving the nightmare of the Holocaust. Is this an uplifting book? Not really, it is more of a cautionary tale. Even though his father survives the Holocaust, the effects continue to echo through his life many years later. The people who survived the events of the Holocaust have to live with the Holocaust forever in their minds and this continues to affect their families generations later. So much thought and skill went into telling this story; it was just incredibly well done. There is some irony to the fact that I asked for this for Christmas and then shortly after it was banned in Texas because of inappropriate content. I don’t know how to tell people this…but the whole Holocaust was inappropriate and it would be really hard to tell an accurate story of what happened without going into some of the violence and death that happened. Is the violence and death presented in an excessive way in this book? Most definitely not. Discussions of the gas chambers and killing of children in the streets of ghettos are addressed matter of factly. Hiding in piles of dead people’s shoes and witnessing the aftermath of a gas chamber are things that really happened. At the time these people were trying to survive one atrocity after another; the atrocities were fact and they are presented as such in this book. People did what they could to keep themselves and their families safe. Should you have your five year old read this? Well do you want to explain the Holocaust to your 5 year old? I might hold off for a bit. We talked about the Holocaust with my son in late elementary/early middle school. He actually checked out this very book from his middle school library and had A LOT of questions for us after he read it. They were excellent questions and we had some very good and thoughtful discussions as a family because of this book. This is a incredibly valuable way to learn about the Holocaust. I think it should be available for everyone in middle school and older to read. My Summary (5/5): Overall I was incredibly impressed with this graphic novel and the amazing job it did blending the past of the Holocaust with the effect it continues to have on people’s day to day lives. I would recommend to middle grade and up readers because the Holocaust is a complicated topic and kids need to be a certain age in order to begin to comprehend cruelty on this scale. Is this book excessively violent or “Inappropriate”? No, not at all. It addresses the topic with excellent candor wrapped into an incredibly engaging story of one man’s survival of these horrific events.

OVERVIEW: Maus is an excellent read. Art Spiegelman is a cartoonist, and comic book creator, but he wanted to document his dad's experience surviving the holocaust. So, he interviewed his dad in a series of conversations. This book chronicles these, giving the reader a dialogue version of Art's dad's haunting struggle for safety and survival as a Jew in Poland and in Germany during the holocaust. It also provides context to the interview itself, telling of his dad's strained relationships with his family along with the author's own fears, concerns, and struggles in writing this book. CONCERNS: A couple of the main concerns with this book are (1) the author's use of animal metaphors to depict groups of people (eg., Jews are drawn as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs), and (2) the fact that the book is a comic. (1) In addressing the first, this is a concern that resonated with me when deciding whether or not to buy this book. The author uses mice as a metaphor for Jews, cats for Germans, pigs for Poles, mix-breed dogs for Americans, etc. The metaphor - even to the author's own admission (p203) - occasionally gets tangled when actual animals come into play. For example, his shrink's house is "overrun with stray dogs and cats" and he keeps a picture of one of his cats in his office (p203). Similarly, Anja (Art's mom) is frightened of rats which Vladek (Art's dad) claims are just mice in order to calm her fears (p149). But the main concern with these metaphors is that the author depicts Poles as pigs. Critics reasonably say that this is unfair considering that Poles were also greatly persecuted by Nazis and explain that many Poles were kind to Jews and hid and fed them during the war. Indeed, why did he choose any of the animals he chose? This is a fair concern, and I have to possible explanations for it. The reasoning behind mice and cats is a bit more clear. The Nazi Regime and propaganda referred to Jews as mice. The author includes a quote at the beginning of Maus II: "Mickey Mouse is the most miserablee ideal ever revealed... Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal... Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!" - newspaper article, Pomerania, Germany, mid-1930s (p164). Thus, since the Nazis portrayed the Jews as mice as well as their prey, it was fitting to depict the Germans as cats. But why Poles as pigs? Some say this is how the Nazi regime portrayed them though I can't find much evidence of this. Another reason is that this is possibly how Vladek (the author's dad) saw them. Vladek's story recounts several times Poles risked their lives to hide or otherwise help Jews (eg., 140-150, 192,195). But he also acutely remembers how many other Poles aligned closely with the Nazis: Some Poles taught their children that Jews would bag and eat them (p151); Vladek and Anja were betrayed by Poles (p157), the kapos who "ran" the concentration camps were Poles, and even after the war, Vladek and Anja heard stories from other Jews of Poles who were still driving away, beating, and killing Jews (p291-292). Vladek is portrayed throughout this book as highly difficult to get along with, selfish, and racist. This leads the author to seriously question if he should even finish writing the book as he fears it might cast all Jews in a negative light simply because of his dad's behavior. (2) Spiegelman himself admits that comics is not the ideal method of relaying holocaust stories. In the book, he tells his wife, "There's so much I'll never be able to understand or visualize. I mean, reality is too complex for comics... so much has to be left out or distorted." To which she replies, "Just keep it honest, honey." (p176). Ultimately, though, I do not think this is as big an issue as many see it to be. I understand where critics are coming from, but this is just one book and one person's retelling of their survival of the holocaust. It is not nor is it meant to be exhaustive or a main source on the holocaust. Spiegelman is simply using his talents (comic book creation and writing) to tell his dad's survival of one of the darkest times in history. Furthermore, many people are looking for an underlying message in Maus - one that does not exist. Spiegelman mentions this toward the end of Maus II when he is being hounded by interviewers asking unhelpful questions. One interviewer says, "Tell our viewers what message you want them to get from your book." To which he responds, "A message? I dunno... I - I never thought of reducing it to a message. I mean, I wasn't trying to convince anybody of anything." (p202) FINAL THOUGHTS: If this is the only book on the holocaust you are reading or if you intend it as your sole education on the holocaust or WWII, then don't read it. If, however, you are wanting to hear a variety of holocaust survivor stories, then I definitely recommend this being one of them. It is honest - even when painful to be so - and sheds light on a few of the ways in which survivors were traumatized. Even the fact that it is a comic provides a uniqueness to it that I believe to be helpful in hearing different people's experiences through the holocaust. Maus also shows that not all of the victims were/are nice people. Thus, the quality of being human and that of being valuable cannot be defined by one's behavior or words - it must be something intrinsic to us. No, this is not the message of Maus; there is no message (p202). But nonetheless, it is something we can learn from reading this book along with many other survivor stories.

Jamás había llorado tanto con un cómic, una historia increíble, la edición en pasta dura es bastante buena, de buenísima calidad y las hojas también son increíbles. Merece completamente la pena, la mejor compra para empezar el año.

La historia del holocausto judio contada por sus victimas y supervivientes. Spiegelman narra el sufrimiento de sus padres y resto de familia durante la ocupación nazi y la segunda guerra mundial utilizando la novela gráfica como via narrativa. Imprescindidible. Para comprender una pequeña parte de la historia del siglo XX. No te dejes engañar por la caracterización animal de los personajes. La obra destila el sufrimiento humano y refleja como se pueden llegar a comportar los seres humanos, y como quedan marcados todos.

Maus is heartbreaking and heartwarming; it will fill you with rage but also hope.

Due to the condition description as "good" I was worried this was a used item. It looks or is brand new, I cannot see that anyone ever touched this book. Great item, thanks.

Ne avevo letto qualche puntata su Linus tanti anni fa. Non l'ho mai affrontato per intero perché il tema è difficile. Il racconto è drammatico, molto coinvolgente e appassionante. Si capisce la sofferenza imposta da regimi autoritari alle minoranze che vogliono eliminare o emarginare.