Search - The Complete Maus : A Survivor's Tale

Maus is one of the strongest, most affecting, most perfectly realized pieces of art I've ever read/seen. If you are not the sort of person who ordinarily reads graphic novels, please don't be put off. The story of what happened to Art Spiegelman's father during the war is entwined with the current day Art Spiegelman coming to grips with his family's history and finding some sort of peace with his father. The resolutions are never simple, the story is ultimately tragic but told with great humor, and is just beautiful.

This review pertains to both Volumes 1 & 2 of "Maus", or if you like, "The Complete Maus". This was the first graphic novel that I think I've ever read. It is at once both autobiographical, about the author's life as a young man, and biographical in detailing the lives of his parents in Europe just prior to WWII and throughout the holocaust. I found this to be immensely addictive; once I started reading, I found myself unable to stop and very disappointed when I reached the last panel. I wanted more! In Spiegelman's depiction of the holocaust, Jews are mice, Nazis are cats, and civilian folks (Germans / Poles) are pigs. There is an enormous amount of symbolism in the animals that the author selected. I've read a fair amount of holocaust literature and I still found this to be unnerving and disturbing. I initially thought the author would not be able to adequately convey the emotions and tensions from a print novel into a graphic novel, but I stand here humbly corrected. This is a greatly moving work of art.

This graphic novel won the Pulitzer Prize for good reason: it tells a true story so involving, recognizable, and horrific in a groundbreaking and creative fashion. Two side-by-side stories are developed within the narrative, along with simple black and white drawings, and depict a son's frustrations as he interviews his own father about the father's experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust. Jews are portrayed as mice, while Nazis are cats, and other nationalities and groups are represented in other ways besides, all in service of a remarkable, emotional, and truly important tale that is at once intimate yet epic. This version of the book contains both parts of the story in one graphic novel. A true reading experience that shouldn't be missed!