oh my god.



This burrowed it's way deep into my heart. This made me feel so much. This was an experience, not just a "read". This was real and I can't even explain how this affected me because it was the most emotional thing I've ever read. Not made-up emotion. This was REAL and it affected me.

Vladek. He reminded me of my Grandfather, a little. I loved my Grandfather and I loved Vladek. His story, as told to his son Art Spiegelman, was one of the most powerful stories I've ever experienced.

This w More...

Reading this book was like having an echo of a conversation with my husband's grandfather. Dziadek could be Vladek's twin brother if any of Vladek's poor family had survived the war.

This book's most horrifying moment came, for me, at the loss of their two year old son, Richeu. I tried to imagine a world where my decision to keep my son with me and hope for a better future, cost him his life and considered how I would live with that for the rest of my life.

I don't have the answer to that. All I k More...

Books I read rarely affect my emotions when I'm not reading it. A book can pull me every which way, make me feel horrified or saddened or joyful, but when I put it down, I'm in the same mood I was before I started reading it. Only occasionally can a book get under my skin, and Maus is one of them. I was actually happy to finish it, because I didn't like the way it was making me feel: anxious, upset, unhappy. And I've read Holocaust stuff before. It's not new. Something about the way Spiegelman c More...

This was an amazing read.

This was so good. I've known about it for a long time but somehow never sought it out. Maybe it was a bias against graphic novels? Not sure. I'm so glad I finally read it. This is a picture of human strength and frailty, humane and savage behavior, done in a novel way that seems to make it even more immediate and real.

This was our second book in the local library's discussion of Jewish graphic novels. It is, of course, the most famous and most celebrated exemplar of the genre (if you don't count the superhero stuff). What is amazing about the book is the emotional resonance Spiegelman manages to pack into his panels. In telling the story of his father's experience in the Holocaust, the author refuses to sentimentalize or pander. The most striking innovation is the use of mice for Jews, an appropriation of the More...

Maus is a biographical graphic novel telling the story of the author's father, Vladek Spiegelman, his life in Poland before the second world war and his experiences in Auschwitz. The book uses the device of representing different nationalities as animals, drawn in a simple cartoon fashion - the Jews are represented by mice, the Poles are pigs, the Germans are cats and so on. This initially seems like a simplistic and heavy handed metaphor, but depth and complexity of the narrative quickly become More...

The Maus series by Art Spielgelman, is a graphic novel, and has 296 pages in total. ‘The Complete Maus’, as this book is formally titled, is made up of the two books in the Maus series. It begins with Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale when Art Spiegelman decides to speak to his father, Vladek, about his experiences as a Polish Jew in World War II and the Holocaust. Vladek describes his life before the war: an affluent businessman, with a beautiful wife from a wealthy family named Anja and a small son, R More...

I am always fascinated when I read survivors' accounts of the Holocaust. It amazes me that people could be put through such terror and pain and misery, and still not lose hope of something better tomorrow.

Maus really shows that aspect of the story. Art Spiegelman recounts his father's ordeal in unique form, a comic. While he's at it, he also examines his own relationship with his father, and his parent's relationship with each other, and the differences between a single generation that can be c More...

This was the best graphic novel I have ever read, and it offered a new perspective and reading experience on the Holocaust. It is an account related and drawn by the son of a Holocaust survivor. Art Spiegelman interviews his father throughout the book, and in addition to the Holocaust narrative, we are also given a peek into the post-war life of a survivor and his family. As one might imagine, the after-effects of a war (including, but more broad than, post-traumatic stress) can ruin families as More...

So far, I am really, really this book. I really enjoy graphic novels because so much content can be expressed through the graphics/pictures. This book has two interwoven stories. One about the author and the father's relationship with one another and the other is about the father's struggle to survive the holocaust. There is tragedy in this book, but at the same time there is also humor and touching moments that we can all relate too such as the culture and generation gap that divides the two.

I More...

The Complete Maus is a holocaust story, but not like one you've ever read before. The author tells the story of his father, Vladek, a Polish Jew living through WWII, surviving Nazi occupation and Auschwitz thanks to his resourcefulness and good providence. However, the author also reveals his strained relationship with his father as he tells not only his father's story, but also the story of Vladek sharing his experience with his son.

Not only does the father-son dynamic make the book interesting More...

Adorno said, "There can be no art after the Holocaust." No justifiable reason to produce anything beautiful; no possible way to portray the Holocaust in anything as beautiful as art.

Lo and behold, the half-century proceeding this declaration has produced a plethora of art about the Holocaust. Isn't art the best way to be drawn in? I finished Maus in twenty-four hours. I had nightmares for two nights in a row. Books like these show me that I often forget just how harrowing it invariably is to be More...

I finally read this, in two separate editions, and now they are on my shelf of classic favorites that have moved me profoundly and changed me fundamentally.

After historical study, movies (Schindler's List et al) and novels (Sophie's Choice etc.), I felt I had had enough of Holocaust stories. I would never forget, as goes the dictum, but these tales were too unnerving and painful to read. What more could I learn?

The difference with Maus is not only the graphic novel format (although this does mak More...

For some, this book might not seem like it belongs in the books I read. It's a comic book (and I have a guilty pleasure with some comics). However, even if I didn't enjoy a single thing about comics, I would still recommend this book. Maus is not just a great comic book. This is one great book, a genuine piece of literature and visual art beautifully meshed around a difficult and profound subject.

Art Speigelman, the author, interviewed his father for several months, attempting to get informatio More...

this book won't change your life, but it will make you think, and hopefully feel grateful for what you have, be that family, food, home, or some combination thereof.

it will also make you laugh, and considering the topic of the book, i think that's quite a feat. for example, one of my favorite lines goes something like: if you're trying to survive, it's good to be friendly.

this came after another round of successful bartering in auschwitz. as a (likely) unvarnished comment from an actual surviv More...

Just beautiful. Heartachingly beautiful. Really, the only criticism I can give to Maus is...that I wish there were more. Really, it's a fast, fast read, and in fact, goes by way too quickly. The artwork is not something you linger over; there aren't a lot of intricate details in the drawings or anything, but the format suits the story so well, and the artwork matches the emotion in every frame.

Now I'm heading over to hulu.com to watch the Simpson's episode that Art Speigelman guested in. "Maus i More...

Siempre he sentido especial fascinación por las historias ambientadas en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, sean o no ficticias; pero sobre todo por los testimonios reales de los supervivientes al Holocausto, ese tipo de historias que te ponen los pelos de punta y que te remueven cada víscera de tu cuerpo.
Cuando me enteré de la existencia de Maus el flechazo fue instantáneo. La originalidad del planteamiento, la edición tan cuidada, pero sobre todo lo humana y cruel que resultaba la idea de que todo es More...

"Cuando Art Spiegelgamn decidió contar la historia de su familia y de muchos otros judíos durante el genocidio de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, no se planteó escribir una novela. Decidió que la mejor manera de acercarse a aquella terrible realidad, en su condición de dibujante, sería a través de las viñetas. De ese modo comenzó a crear la memoir gráfica sobre el tema más cruento que el mundo haya vivido. En 1980, Spiegelman publicó la primera parte en la revista Raw, pero no sería hasta 1991 cuando More...

I discuss Maus and comic book theory here:

http://www.morethanaweekend.com

or continue reading below:

Maus: A Reader's Tale

In his Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud coins the phrase "amplification through simplification." He uses the term in reference to cartoons and how by simplifying (usually) human features, artists amplify certain aspects of whatever the drawing is supposed to represent. By amplifying, let's say, just the basic facial features of a man, then that drawing could come to represen More...

Emotionally gripping, uplifting, tragic, humurous, contemporary and shocking. I have read memoirs of other Holocaust survivors before, yet this one really struck me more. As Vladek told his dangerous and tragic story, I felt myself being put into his shoes and going on that hard deadly ordeal with him. I did admire Art Spiegelman in wanting to know his father's story- his struggles during the Holocaust, in Auschwitz, on the run, and how he survived. The details of hiding places Vladek described More...

I'm going to consolidate my reviews for the individual Maus parts into one review.

I was often asked what I was reading and if it was any good while reading these books. It was hard for me to say "Yes, this book is amazing, go read it!" because it's not a feel good book. At all. And that's kind of obvious, given the subject matter. That being said, these books are amazing, and you should go read them.

The illustration style was a little different than the other graphic novels I've been reading, bu More...

I rarely go in for graphic novels; I tend to find that initially promising concepts fail to deliver as both art and writing quality suffer over the course of the book in a sort of jack-of-all-trades effect. This is an incredibly generalised way of viewing the genre, and I'm making an effort to read more graphic novels in an attempt to prove myself wrong.
Maus seems to have done the trick. Essentially an illustrated transcript of a conversation with the author's elderly father, Vladek, in the last More...

Having never actually picked up a volume of Maus, I had been under the impression that this was a fictional narrative, either taking place in an allegorical Nazi-like world run by cats, or else covering the plight of some imaginary characters in World War II Germany. As it turns out, as reading the first few pages shows, this is actually a autobiographical book, detailing the author's efforts to chronicle his father's experiences in Poland leading up to, and during, the Nazi occupation.

Because o More...

My appreciation for Maus deepened upon teaching it to my class of 7th graders. As a companion to their study of World War II, it was one of the most effective ways to broach topics I would have previously thought inaccessible with eleven year-olds, much less in a classroom setting.

The novel makes something completely inaccessible to any modern audience accessible. By introducing characters as animals, Spiegelman is able to play on the innate human tendency to anthropomorphize animals. Instantly More...

Maus est vraiment un chef d'oeuvre. Que ce soit pour l'histoire où les dessins.

L'histoire, nous la connaissons tous. La seconde guerre mondiale et la déportation des juifs. Art Spiegelman veut faire une bande dessinée sur ce qu'a vécu son père, Vladek Spiegelman, en Pologne pendant la guerre alors il lui demande de lui raconter. Entre les pages où nous voyons Art, son père et Mala, la nouvelle femme de son père, nous suivons le récit de Vladek, entrecoupé par leur moments de vie.

Jeune homme, il More...

With books like Maus, that have become epochal, it is sometimes hard to know where to begin. So this review shall begin at the beginning; at the start of things, where my knowledge of comics was that of the 90s X Men cartoon and my knowledge of World War Two was classroom bound and black and white.

Maus was the book that told me: This is comics. This is comics, tackling the awful, the hideous and the disturbing with a skill that could be rarely achieved in another art form. This is comics, drawin More...

Punti di vista.

Valentina, nipote tredicenne, non ama leggere.
Non è sempre stato così, ma da quando si è affacciata all'adolescenza leggere non fa più parte delle sue passioni.
Si annoia dice.
Preferisce fare altre cose, penso.
Poi la notte della vigilia di Natale, mentre siamo tutti là, fratelli, zii, cugini, genitori e nonne, mentre chiacchieriamo appoggiate sul suo letto, mi ritrovo tra le mani una copia di Maus.
- E questo? - le chiedo.
Le si illuminano gli occhi e mi dice - È bellissimo!
E mi iniz More...