Maus, Vol. 2: And Here My Troubles Began

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Maus, Vol. 2: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus #2)

4.45 of 5 stars 4.45 · rating details · 41,367 ratings · 1,076 reviews

Acclaimed as a quiet triumph and a brutally moving work of art, the first volume of Art Spieglman's Maus introduced readers to Vladek Spiegleman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist trying to come to terms with his father, his father's terrifying story, and History itself. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), succeeds perfe...more

Paperback, 136 pages

Published October 19th 1993 by Pantheon (first published November 5th 1991)

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Apr 12, 2009 Chandra rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir, graphic-novels-comics, 2009-reads, favorites, history

One of those rare instances where the sequel is slightly better than its predecessor. Spiegelmen used the first installment to show us how his parents (Vladek and Anja) struggled to survive nazi occupation and evade capture. Their luck eventually runs out and that story ends at the gates of Auschwitz. We know, of course, that Anja and Vladek will survive, but we have no idea what horrors are in store for both of them - they are split up and have little idea about the others whereabouts. Quite si...more

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Mar 18, 2008 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone.

Shelves: comics, nonfiction, library

When I was a boy living in Germany, my parents and I visited Dachau concentration camp.

It was horrible. We saw the ovens, the gas chambers, the graveyards. The visit drove home to me the magnitude of the horror that had been perpetrated there, and the madness of the people who had orchestrated it.

Maus II is mostly concerned with Vladek's time in Auschwitz. It reminded me of all things I had seen when I was a boy, but it also added a new perspective. This graphic novel really drove home to me wha...more

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Mar 26, 2012 Sarai is currently reading it

So far i just finished chapter one of the Maus, and the chapters are long, but i think it is a good book so far. At first i was a bit confused as to who was the narrator and what the book was going to be about, either about the Houlocaust, or about the narrators life. As i kept on reading i figured it out and im very intrigued to findout more about the narrators father and his experience in the holocaust.

Now that i am already more then half way done i find the book really interesting and i cant...more

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Jan 24, 2009 Michael Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, graphic-novels, historical-fiction, memoir

I felt much stronger about this second installment of the Maus series, the heart-breaking story of a Holocaust survivor. While in the first book Vladek, the businessman/mouse trapped by history into the most disgusting human-killing machine ever created, is too much of a self-interested combiner, in this part Vladek becomes more than a stereotype. The Maus helps his friends and wife beyond reason and in spite of danger (contrasting the behavior described in Primo Levi's If This Is a Man), and be...more

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Jan 25, 2008 Madeline rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who doesn't think of graphic novels as "real literature"

Shelves: graphic-novels, honors-program

this was interesting to me because it wasn't just the story of a man who survived auschwitz. it was the story of son ("artie") telling the story based on a retelling from his father's memory, which does not always seem to serve correctly. it is subtitled "a survivor's tale" but this brings to mind the problem of who is the survivor? is it that the father is a survivor of auschwitz? or is it that the son is a survivor of his father? in the end the subtitle seems purely ironic because no one seems...more this was interesting to me because it wasn't just the story of a man who survived auschwitz. it was the story of son ("artie") telling the story based on a retelling from his father's memory, which does not always seem to serve correctly. it is subtitled "a survivor's tale" but this brings to mind the problem of who is the survivor? is it that the father is a survivor of auschwitz? or is it that the son is a survivor of his father? in the end the subtitle seems purely ironic because no one seems to have completely survived. the father is hopelessly scarred with sadness and mistrust, while the son is scarred with the guilt of not having been in auschwitz. the guilt of having too easy of a life. artie's mother, also an auchwitz survivor, has killed herself at this point from either guilt or sadness, or both.

the pictures use the nazis' own metaphor, turning the jews into mice (and the nazis into cats). but it is a forced metaphor because the mice drive human cars, live in human houses and have human bodies. at certain points their mice faces are revealed to be masks, tied around their heads.

the back cover of the book is very telling to the overall themes. it features a map of auschwitz, with jagged black smoke coming out of the crematorium, angled to remind one of a swastika as well as artie's own cigarette smoke. overlapping this map is a map of the state of new york, where artie and his father live (or rather lived in the more recent past. his father has actually died after the 13 years it took art to complete the maus series). intersecting both maps is the image of a mouse in an auschwitz prisoner's uniform, which, together with the ominously bold label of the "catskills mountains" on the map of new york, suggests that both locations represent an inescapable prison. the stripes on the mouse's uniform also run, almost without interruption, into the bar code of the book suggesting spiegelman's concerns about selling out by the publication of the book.

there is this level of meta fiction, of self-doubt, of questioning who has the right to tell this story and what story should be told, throughout the whole book, making it more complex than most holocaust stories.(less)

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Feb 11, 2008 Laurie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who want to read about the Holocaust

It's difficult to review this book when my comments are similar to what I said for Maus I. There is still a negative relationship between the son (author) and his father (Holocaust survivor). This made for some uneasy moments between the two, and still in this book I felt the son was selfish, though less so. The major difference between this and the first Maus is that this book looks back on the fathers' time in the concentration camps. There are amazing stories about how the father and his wife...more

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Nov 21, 2007 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: advisory2007-08

I don't know why I read the second one even before I read the first one but it's still a very...intense book I guess. I found this book incredibly educational because it's like reading a story of someone that's really been through thick and thin in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. This book speaks of great survival and trying to help yourself out of a very helpless situation. It sort of plays a role in relating back to real life where humans would try and save themselves before even...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Dante rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, theoretical, history, memoir, graphic-novel, biography

Alright, what I want to do next, in the coming days or weeks, is watch Der Untergang, Schinder's List, and documentaries about the Holocaust and just re-learn and know more about it. I've seen the Steven Spielberg film a long time ago and saw several documentaries about WW2, but I want to re-visit the subject.

I got teary-eyed a few times while reading this second book. What an amazing story of survival! It almost sounds like fiction. But it's not.

The accounts of violence, brutality, murder, and...more

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Mar 08, 2008 Joy Sterrantino rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think everyone should read this book. It is a brilliant telling of a Jewish couple at Auschwitz. Where it differs is not only in its form of graphic novel but that it tells the true story of Speigelman's father in parallel form, going back and forth between his interviewing his father in the book in the 1970s/80s and his father's experience in Poland.
This book was the OneBook that all composition teachers taught to their freshman comp courses. They loved it. Don't let the format of graphic no...more

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Feb 14, 2008 Kerry rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book handles a difficult subject of a son dealing with an aging parent. In this case, the parent is a concentration camp survivor. The son tries to record his father's account of those times. It is a creative approach to this particular subject, but I found it difficult to read, despite its graphic novel format. Maybe I missed out since I read II before Maus I. Good food for thought on our past shapes our future. Interesting themes on how parents can sometimes have a hard time communicating...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Talyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonmanga-graphic-novel, bio-autobio-memoir, awesome-old-person, survival, tragic-character, history, adults-are-monsters, here-be-monsters, horror-dark-creepy-gothic, absolutely-no-mercy, anti-semitism, backwards-in-time, badass-parent, wars-and-fighting, wwii-and-holocaust, seniors-old-people, questions-humanity, past-is-now-in-present, no-one-escapes-alive, no-sympathy-for-the-devil, made-me-want-to-strangle-things, fighting-against-all-odds, family, death-dying, death-trap, creeped-me-out, crazy-person

So I had to go back and read the last two pages of the first volume to remember where the story left off...

Compared to all of the time spent in the first volume talking about how Spiegelman's father and his family tried to circumvent the Nazis and authorities from being taken away, the concentration camp experiences in this second volume were kind of short. It's because Vladek was super resourceful and lucky and knew the sympathetic and malleable authorities where he was stationed along with hav...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Kruti rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: cry-me-a-river, comics-manga-graphic-novels, nf-memoirs-or-biographies

“A Survivor’s Tale”

But is it really? Did Spiegelman’s father (Vladek) really survive the Holocaust? That is the question you’re left to ponder after finishing the novel. In this installment, you see Vladek’s time in Auschwitz and see how the atrocities during the war scarred him in more ways than one. He’s constantly haunted by the past - by the deaths of his relatives, by the death of his first child and eventually his wife’s suicide. The ending is truly heart-breaking. He may have survived the...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Mariana Orantes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Me gustó mucho, ¿qué puedo decir? he leído muchos relatos sobre el holocausto (Kertesz, Primo Levi, Morpurgo...) y la gran vuelta que le da Spiegelman es no contarlo exclusivamente desde Vladek, sino contar la relación de Artie con su padre y con eso envolver la narración. Así causa un distanciamiento y a la vez una enorme empatía e identificación emocional con los personajes. Es decir, se logra una especie de conocimiento profundo a partir de la distancia que nosotros mismos tenemos del holocau...more

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Mar 16, 2013 John Beck rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, graphic-novels, non-fiction

http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2013/01/maus-by-art-spiegelman.html

Art Spiegelman's Maus was one of the most difficult graphic novels I've ever read.

Not difficult because of the subject material- though it's hard to think of a book about the Holocaust as light reading.

Maus is hard to read because it's literarily hard to read. The colorless frames have very little gray; what might seem to be gray at first glance is in fact minutely cross-hatched black and white. This leaves the eye (or, at le...more http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2013/01/maus-by-art-spiegelman.html

Art Spiegelman's Maus was one of the most difficult graphic novels I've ever read.

Not difficult because of the subject material- though it's hard to think of a book about the Holocaust as light reading.

Maus is hard to read because it's literarily hard to read. The colorless frames have very little gray; what might seem to be gray at first glance is in fact minutely cross-hatched black and white. This leaves the eye (or, at least, my eye) very little time to rest.

As a story about storytelling, hardly a frame goes by without a word in it, and in most frames, the words overlow. The dialogue bubbles interfere with the images; there's just not enough room for the words and images to co-exist. If that's not trouble enough, Spiegelman's hand printed writing slants and tumbles just enough to make it impossible to scan. Every page is a labor (and maybe it's supposed to be that way).

While the anthropomorphized animals might give a reader the emotional distance to deal with the tragedy (and while Jews-as-mice, Nazis-as-cats motif might help a grade school student keep track of good guys and bad guys), the truth is that none of the main characters are drawn distinctly enough to help me keep track of who's talking to whom across the disjointed and often interrupted narrative. Spiegelman's play on traditional expectations of animals in comics was subversive at the time (compare these Holocaust surviving mice to Donald Duck, Mighty Mouse and Garfield), the artifice doesn't hold up. Comics have come a long way in being appreciated as an artform since Maus won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

Am I harder on Maus than on so many other graphic novels because of how highly recognized and praised it is? Yeah, probably.

I mean, Maus has everything I love in a novel.

Start with the framing tale, the son talking to his father, and his father's story relayed across a barrier of language and years. It's so Heart of Darkness that I could just about squeal with joy (would that make me one of the Polish pigs?).

There are questions built into the narrative about the power of memory to contaminate life, the power we allow our families to have in shaping our adult lives, the difficultly of finding a space of our own as children that still shows sufficient respect for the sacrifices our parents made to bring us this far. Plus, as a graphic novel without anyone wearing spandex, Maus meets one of my personal criteria for graphic novel greatness.

But while Maus partnered with Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns in the late '80s to bring comics for adults into the mainstream, the other two book are just so phenomenally more readable, that I have a hard time imaging I'll ever pick Maus up again.(less)

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Feb 16, 2013 Meleece rated it 5 of 5 stars

A mother wrote to her son fighting in Europe during World War II and admonished him as always to "be careful". The son and the rest of his fellow soldiers knew that how careful you were or how smart or how fast or how brave you were didn't matter. Life was preserved by inches and seconds. It seemed completely random to them who was killed and who survived. Spiegelman's shrink mentions this as well, this randomness of who survived the death camps and who didn't: "You think it's admirable to survi...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Clement Leveau rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Clement Leveau 1/15/13
7-1 BSGE
The symbolism in the book Maus II was very interesting. It used common elements used in literature and movies such as cat and mouse and how French people eat frogs. For example in Maus II the villains of the story are the Nazi’s who are depicted as cats. The main character of the story, Vladek, and all the other Jewish people are portrayed as mice. This is a commonly used comparison to show that one group or race wants to hunt down the other. It is also an interesti...more Clement Leveau 1/15/13
7-1 BSGE
The symbolism in the book Maus II was very interesting. It used common elements used in literature and movies such as cat and mouse and how French people eat frogs. For example in Maus II the villains of the story are the Nazi’s who are depicted as cats. The main character of the story, Vladek, and all the other Jewish people are portrayed as mice. This is a commonly used comparison to show that one group or race wants to hunt down the other. It is also an interesting comparison because it draws on the same reason why the Nazi’s hated the Jews, because of their beliefs and the way they acted. With cats and mice it is the same. Cats eat mice because of their features.
This book, though gruesome and disturbing, can also be quite humorous with its symbolism. A reason for this is that the French in the story are portrayed as frogs which goes along with the French stereotype that French people eat frogs. And a lot of times French people (especially in England) are called Frog legs. Another joke that is inserted in is that the Swedes are reindeer. This is a stereotype because a lot of times Swedes are known to be just flakey northerners and that they eat reindeer.
There is another interesting bit of symbolism in this book it is that the Americans are portrayed as dogs. I assume they are portrayed like that because dogs are known to chase cats and in Maus II that was precisely what they did. When the Americans arrive at the end the Nazi’s (cats) all run away and Vladek is saved. I didn’t get why the Poles are portrayed as Pigs, it didn’t seem to fit very well. I have two theories why the poles were potrayed as pigs. The first is that the polish are known to eat a lot of pork. The second is that the poles betrayed Vladek and acted as antagonists many times throughout the story. So that means this bit of symbolism can either be a way of ridiculing the poles or just going by what their country eats.
In conclusion this book uses a lot of symbolism to comical and to be serious.
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Jan 24, 2013 Paul Z rated it 4 of 5 stars

Art Spiegelman, in the book Maus Vol. 2, uses animals to symbolize different races while telling the story of his father living thought the Holocaust. Throughout this book, Art tells the story of his mother and father surviving though Holocaust in Auschwitz, from the point of view of his dad. This book was a continuation of the first book, where Art's parents were evading the Nazis but this book is about life in the concentration camps.
When Art's father, Vladek first entered the camp, he did...more Art Spiegelman, in the book Maus Vol. 2, uses animals to symbolize different races while telling the story of his father living thought the Holocaust. Throughout this book, Art tells the story of his mother and father surviving though Holocaust in Auschwitz, from the point of view of his dad. This book was a continuation of the first book, where Art's parents were evading the Nazis but this book is about life in the concentration camps.
When Art's father, Vladek first entered the camp, he did not know what to expect. Like everyone else he was scared and worried about their loved ones. Vladek was put in a block with 300 other Jews, with one "Leader" who was a prisoner, but he took orders from the Nazis and handed them down to the prisoners. This leader had all the Jews in the block line up and asked which of them knew how to speak Polish or English. This is where Vladek's luck began.
Vladek was chosen mainly because he was superior in knowing Polish, German, and English. The Leader of the block was interested to learn English so he had Vladek teach him, in return he would give Vladek lots of food and a good job to work at. Vladek was brought to a tin shop where he would work as a specialist. During this time Vladek lived better than the average prisoner, and ate well too.
After living that way for a while Vladek's luck started to run out, they closed down the tin shop and Vladek was put to work in a rock quarry where he had to lift heavy rocks and get the same amount of food that the other prisoners got. After working in this quarry for a couple of months, the front-line of the war started to get closer, the Nazis started to make the Jews march farther into Germany. When they left, they left in cattle cars on the railroad, packed in so tightly they all had to stand. Soon after arriving at a new camp, the war was finally over.
Throughout his life, Vladek survived through one of the worlds worst genocides. The way he lived after the war really showed what it had changed him into. The reality of war is bad, the reality of concentration camps with no food and mass murders is horrible.(less)

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Jan 22, 2013 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites, comics-aka-graphic-novels, reminiscences, war, history

(Same review given for volumes 1 and 2.)

The most moving work about the Holocaust, and one of the most moving books I've ever read, is a cartoon where the Germans and Jews are drawn, respectively, as anthropomorphic cats and mice. Sounds crazy? It does to me too. But this book is serious, sad, rich in emotion, and above all, human. Art Spiegelman writes about his father, a survivor; the story alternates between his father's reminiscences, mostly in Poland, before and during WWII, and the difficu...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Tristan Plante rated it 5 of 5 stars

Maus 2: And Here My Troubles Began
art Spiegelman
Non-Fiction

Mause 2 was a teriffic book. It really manages to inform and educate its readers about life as a jew during the holocaust but in such a way that if feel like someone is actually telling you personal stories about how they managed to survive such an event.

In this book the main character Vladek talks about his struggle against his Nazi guards (Hero vs. Society) for example in one scene the kapo were making the prisoners to physical exerci...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Kayla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

If I ever get the chance to teach history, I would absolutely include this graphic novel as a required read. Although the characters are mice (a reference to a quote made in a newspaper), the characters are completely human. I felt the sadness of Art's father as he had to make difficult choices throughout the graphic novel. While reading the book, I became heartbroken and depressed. The book affected me in many different levels and made me question the actions of people who live in fear (whether...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Arbeerman rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read Maus II: And Here My Trouble Began by Art Spiegelman for my second quarter independent novel. This book is a re-telling of Art Spiegelman's own fathers' experiences in the Holocaust. While it is a novel, it is also historical, factual, and true. In this book Art's father is telling him about what happened to him once his family got into the camps. It goes through how they survived in those god awful barracks, doing hard labor, and not getting chosen to die. When they first arrived to the...more I read Maus II: And Here My Trouble Began by Art Spiegelman for my second quarter independent novel. This book is a re-telling of Art Spiegelman's own fathers' experiences in the Holocaust. While it is a novel, it is also historical, factual, and true. In this book Art's father is telling him about what happened to him once his family got into the camps. It goes through how they survived in those god awful barracks, doing hard labor, and not getting chosen to die. When they first arrived to the camps they were scared. They had heard of these and were not sure what was going to happen. There was chatter however, Vladek over heard some other people saying "if they brought you here (where they were), they'll put you to work. They're not ready to kill you yet." This helps understand that they were in a work camp. He goes through many treacherous events to save his own life and that of his family, but i don't want to ruin the story for you now. Later on in the story they're being moved to another camp and they think that by hiding they could get away from the Nazis, however this didn't work. "They're going to set fire to the camp and bomb all the blocks!" They were hiding in an attic and heard this news so they fled and joined the rest of the prisoners. Did they ever get out, how, did they ever loose any of their family? Well, i guess you'll have to read on your own and figure it out for yourself.

I personally enjoyed this book. I enjoyed that I was able to read and learn about this terrible event. I am glad that somebody had the guts to write this horrific story about their fathers past and publish it for the whole world to see. I think that everybody should read this book. It is important for people to read and understand how this happened, what exactly happened, and how these people lived through it. However, some people are unable to read these kinds of books without feeling sick. So, if that is you and you cant read this kind of stuff i recommend that you don't. If you enjoy history and want to learn about what happened during this time you should definitely read it. (less)

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Dec 06, 2012 Dicarb16 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Maus is a graphic novel that was written by Art Spiegelman. The story takes place in 1978 where Art is interviewing his father Vladek about his life in the holocaust for a graphic novel he’s writing. All the characters are portrayed as animals. The Jews are mice, the Nazis are cats, and the Poles are pigs. Vladek talks about the time he married his old wife Anja and when the Nazi’s arrested them and they were put in concentration camps. In 1943, Art’s group is sent to Sosnoweic where he reunites...more

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Nov 09, 2012 Duc Hoang rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: comic

Hard to say I like this for what it tells, but maybe, I like it for how the author tells it. Really, depicting everyone as animals really pars down the severity and sorrowness, makes it more.. enjoyable, so that it's not as much as a dry, spiky junk of bitterness to swallow. Pretty clever, Mr. Spiegelman. But I don't mean the story was that bad. It's still quite good, actually, like how Spiegelman's father managed through it all: the draft, the war between Poland and German - as both a Poland so...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels, favorites

Art wrote and drew this two-part graphic novel based on his own father's (Vladek) experiences during World War II. It's also a revealing look at Art himself and his relationship with his difficult dad. Maus feels so honest. It's written not about a perfect man, but about a regular man, who fights with his wife and has a tortured relationship with his grown son. He is a flawed man who survived the holocaust and this is his story.

The book is brilliantly real. The fact that the story is told as a...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Abraham Abdullah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Maus 2 A Survivor’s Tale And Here my Troubles Began Random House, 1992, pp.136, $ 14.95 Art Spiegalman ISBN- 978-0-679-72977-8
A Man's Journey: A review of Maus 2 A Survivor’s Tale And Here my Troubles Began
Imagine living in a concentration camp. That’s exactly what Vladek, a male Jew who is seen as optimistic, did in the book Maus 2. It’s a life--crammed with horror and danger.
Art Spiegalman the author of Maus 2, also a character in his own book (drawn as a mouse), wrote it as a tribute to hi...more

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Sep 25, 2012 Ariel Langford rated it 5 of 5 stars

Pulitzer Prize winner of 1992, Art Spiegelman, a talented and powerful writer impacts many readers with his impressive graphic novel Maus II. Spiegelman writes about the trials and tribulations that his parents, Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, experienced while imprisoned in camp Auschwitz during WWII, during what is known as the Holocaust. Throughout the story Art records the conversations he has with his father about the unthinkable events he encountered, and how his love for Anja kept him alive....more Pulitzer Prize winner of 1992, Art Spiegelman, a talented and powerful writer impacts many readers with his impressive graphic novel Maus II. Spiegelman writes about the trials and tribulations that his parents, Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, experienced while imprisoned in camp Auschwitz during WWII, during what is known as the Holocaust. Throughout the story Art records the conversations he has with his father about the unthinkable events he encountered, and how his love for Anja kept him alive. Although Vladek survived such a tragedy the impact of his survival weighs as a heavy load on his son’s shoulders.
In the English language the word “maus” means mouse. In this graphic novel Spielgelman illustrates many metaphors. By drawing the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats the graphic novel shows their antagonistic relationship. The New York Times also recognizes this technique; as it “did not end up trivializing the event, as one might fear; rather, it served to goad the reader into looking at the event anew.” This also creates a sense of inferiority to the prisoners of the camps, while the Nazis act as puppet masters maintaining the prisoners every move. While Vladek endured many obstacles, he also used the camp to his advantage. He collaborated with many high ranking people to maintain certain jobs for favors in return.
As the men and women entered Auschwitz they were forcibly pushed in opposite directions, splitting Vladek and Anja for what they thought may be forever. The theme of “love always prevails” plays a very large role in the couple’s survival. Shortly into chapter two Vladek meets a beautiful, blonde Hungarian woman, Mancie, who had direct contact with Anja at Birkenau. Mancie would help him send Anja bread and letters to keep their hope alive and later bring them together. Valadek soon had the opportunity to work as a tin man for a few days at Birkenau, he and a “few others marched there for the first time in the summer of 1944” (p. 55). Soon after marching back to Auschwitz he became a skilled shoemaker and surprised the officials with his expertise. He was so well known, Kapos (barrack officers) from Birkenau were asking for his assistance, this is another way he protected Anja from being executed because she was so weak. Overcoming hardships can be very difficult alone, and even though they were miles apart their love is what kept them close. This theme continues throughout the book.
Narrating the extraordinary survival story of his father, Art is confronted by many problems of his own. His relationship with his father, nothing short of demanding, takes a toll on his patience, understanding, and writing. While spending time with his father after his second wife Mala left him, for the same reasons Art failed to visit, he realizes the effects of a terrifying past may have on your future. Art tends to get easily frustrated by his father’s actions, causing turmoil in their relationship. It seems as though Art holds a sense of guilt over himself for leading such a simple life while his parents went through devastation in hopes of one day being free from German oppression.
I would highly recommend Maus II; it is a truly exceptional in the aspect that it gives you a different perception of WWII through the eyes of a prisoner of Auschwitz. Entertainment Weekly refers to the book as “an astonishingly rich portrait of survival through wit and luck.” Although the idea of “never giving up for something you love” crosses my mind when reading this book as well. Anna Horner describes the book as “one of the most gripping stories I’ve ever read,” and I could not agree more. Valdek does everything in his power to make connections throughout camp, and sacrifices much in order to stay alive to see life outside the walls of Auschwitz. I believe it is very important in life to make a name for yourself, and never stop believing in yourself when you feel all hope is lost.
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Jun 21, 2012 Jowel Uddin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-2012-2013

MAUS II
Review

MAUS II takes place a bit after the original MAUS. Vladek and Mala are in the Catskills on a vacation, until Mala leaves Vladek. Artie and his wife hurry to Vladek's side, and end up staying for a few days. Within this time, Vladek continues telling Artie stories of his experience during the Holocaust including working in Auschwitz, secretly speaking to Anja, and eventually being liberated by the Americans. Towards the middle of the book, Vladek dies and Artie publishes the begi...more MAUS II
Review

MAUS II takes place a bit after the original MAUS. Vladek and Mala are in the Catskills on a vacation, until Mala leaves Vladek. Artie and his wife hurry to Vladek's side, and end up staying for a few days. Within this time, Vladek continues telling Artie stories of his experience during the Holocaust including working in Auschwitz, secretly speaking to Anja, and eventually being liberated by the Americans. Towards the middle of the book, Vladek dies and Artie publishes the beginning of MAUS. Then the story continues with Artie telling of his last moments with Vladek and him telling the rest of Vladek's experience in the concentration camps. The amazing memoir ends with a tombstone of both of the Spiegelmans, Vladek and Anja.

Art Spiegelman is an amazing author. He is able to sustain his story into two books and still keep that feeling of wanting to know more, a sense of suspense. MAUS II, like its predecessor, is extremely well illustrated, using animals again to symbolize different ethnic groups. What I truly enjoyed about the book was that it was a perfect balance of both comedy and seriousness. In all reality, the Holocaust is something of extreme importance. Spiegelman creates a comedic relief from some of this seriousness, without offending anyone. The characters are wonderfully crafted and one truly feels for Vladek and Anja, along with the rest of the people in the concentration camps. Spiegelman doesn't just create another story about the Holocaust, but depicts the Holocaust in a rather somewhat comforting way. It isn't too overwhelming or full of facts, but rather a calm and collective comic.

There are various themes within the text itself. One major theme that Art Spiegelman definitely likes to explore a lot in his texts, is one of the effects of events such as the Holocaust. How are these people different after such dehumanizing events? And within this theme, I found a favorite scene of mine. An African American asks Artie and Vladek for a ride. Artie gladly tells the man to hop on board, but Vladek acts in a xenophobic way and starts speaking in Hebrew. He then checks if all of the groceries in the back are still there, after the man leaves the car. This goes back to the effects of dehumanizing events, because humans will always have this xenophobic reaction towards each other. Although Vladek survived the Holocaust, in which Jews were treated horribly, he treats African Americans similar to how the Germans treated him. Art Spiegelman also explores the effects of the Holocaust when he shows that Vladek cannot seem to throw anything away. After all of the rationing and lack of food during the Holocaust, it aches Vladek to throw even cereal away. This theme is quite magnificent and the author explores it throughout the divine book. Overall, MAUS II was a pleasant way of ending Vladek's experience in the Holocaust, and Artie's story.
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May 17, 2012 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels, owned

I have to say that I enjoyed Maus II more than I did Maus I, mostly because this was the point where it really got to the heart of the matter. I'm still unsure as to how I feel about the graphic novel being split between the actual story of the Holocaust and the story about the strain between a father and son. I almost feel as if they would have been better as two separate graphic novels or studies. While I really rooted for the Vladek in the concentration camp, I had a hard time feeling sympath...more

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May 01, 2012 Lauren McKinney rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel

I find graphic novels to be fascinating! Children love these kinds of books. MAUS is written in a cartoon style and double as a historical fiction book. This is the second of the series. The whole book is written in comic strip/book form/style. The first story explains the journey through the Holocaust. Vladek Spiegelman is a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe. His son is a cartoonist who is trying to come to terms with his father and his father's terrifying story. In this cartoon the Nazis and...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Yinglin Chen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: freshman-year

The Holocaust was a very sad event for many people that were persecuted: Jews, those that were mentally ill, deaf, physically disabled, mentally challenged, homosexuals or anyone that was not part of the Aryan race. The Holocaust taught us to stop discriminating each other or judging each other for their religion, sexual identity or even their medical condition.

Maus 2, is about the life of one persecuted mouse, who was eventually saved. Life was hard for them, and it was dangerous. Living days...more

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About Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman (born February 15, 1948) is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic memoir, Maus. The second volume of Maus was dedicated to Richieu and to Spiegelman's daughter Nadja. He also has a son, currently a junior at Brown University.

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Quotes from Maus, Vol. 2: And Here...

“Samuel Beckett once said, "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness."
...On the other hand, he SAID it.” — 37 people liked it

“if they brought you here,They'll put you to work. THEY'RE not readyto kill you YET.” — 2 people liked it

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Maus, Vol. 2: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus #2)

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