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Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus #1)
A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.
Hardcover, 159 pages
Published
November 1st 1991
by Pantheon Books
(first published August 12th 1985)
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Tytti
Probably "wheeler-dealer".
http://www.english-polish-dictionary....
http://www.english-polish-dictionary....
Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
4.5
Very very very powerful and I like that you see the relationship between Spiegelman and his father throughout.
Very very very powerful and I like that you see the relationship between Spiegelman and his father throughout.
The Maus books were just as incredible as promised. I was deeply moved by Spiegelman's story about his father's experiences in Poland and Auschwitz during World War II.
My ancestors are from Germany and my mother was a WWII buff -- our bookshelves at home were filled with hundreds of books about that war. When I asked her why she was so fascinated by that period, she said she was trying to understand how something like the Holocaust could have happened. Now I'm an adult and I often read books ab ...more
My ancestors are from Germany and my mother was a WWII buff -- our bookshelves at home were filled with hundreds of books about that war. When I asked her why she was so fascinated by that period, she said she was trying to understand how something like the Holocaust could have happened. Now I'm an adult and I often read books ab ...more
This is one of those graphic novels that everyone is telling the world to read. Acclaimed as one of the best graphic novels out there. My take on it is that it was really enjoyable and informative, but not the best. While it was very enjoyable, I still had a few problems with it. Overhyped in my opinion, but still highly recommended for me.
I honestly have no problem with the plot. Straightforward and informative. I'm a huge history fan, and the topic of Nazis in general was nothing new for me. ...more
I honestly have no problem with the plot. Straightforward and informative. I'm a huge history fan, and the topic of Nazis in general was nothing new for me. ...more
Re-read September 5, 2015: I think I absorbed a lot more of the story and its power the second time around. It's really wonderfully crafted, and I can't wait to finally read the second volume because this one ends sort of abruptly.
First read January 3-9, 2014
First read January 3-9, 2014
Extraordinary.....
If there was a Pulitzer Prize for the BEST ALREADY
winners of the Pulitzer .....Art Spieglman's books would be a very high contender.
Point is... The creation of Maus exceeds expectations... which you might have heard
through the grapevine.
Maus, Vol 1: "My Father Bleeds"....is painful, personal, brilliant ..,and needs to be experienced first hand...( as all his books do)....
Then we might have a discussion
still worse to come, is Vol 2. "My Trouble Begins"
If there was a Pulitzer Prize for the BEST ALREADY
winners of the Pulitzer .....Art Spieglman's books would be a very high contender.
Point is... The creation of Maus exceeds expectations... which you might have heard
through the grapevine.
Maus, Vol 1: "My Father Bleeds"....is painful, personal, brilliant ..,and needs to be experienced first hand...( as all his books do)....
Then we might have a discussion
still worse to come, is Vol 2. "My Trouble Begins"
I don't read much Holocaust Literature nowadays.
In my teens and twenties, I read everything I could get my hands on on the Third Reich and the Middle Ages, as I had an abnormal urge to seek out the darkness in human souls. I was repelled and at the same time, fascinated by it - like people drawn irresistibly towards gruesome road accidents.
As I matured, this urge to torture myself diluted, and I moved on towards more wholesome stuff. However, I decided I would make an exception with Maus becaus ...more
In my teens and twenties, I read everything I could get my hands on on the Third Reich and the Middle Ages, as I had an abnormal urge to seek out the darkness in human souls. I was repelled and at the same time, fascinated by it - like people drawn irresistibly towards gruesome road accidents.
As I matured, this urge to torture myself diluted, and I moved on towards more wholesome stuff. However, I decided I would make an exception with Maus becaus ...more
When I was a kid I read comic books (mostly Superman). The Maus books are the only graphic novels I've read and I consider them masterpieces (Mausterpieces?). Like Spiegelman's alter ego, I was a middle class child growing up in Queens (NYC), the son of Holocaust survivors and couldn't communicate with my father when I was growing up. He got it down perfectly. It was spot on and ranks among the best of Holocaust related literature.
When I switched my major to English in my senior year, I had a lot of back classes to take, especially intro classes with freshmen and sophmores, though my last intro class was a night class with primarily older women, who worked full time jobs in Edison or the Amboys and a bushel of kids waiting at home. Basically, they were there to learn more about literature, sort of as a self-improvement class for the non-literary. The class was taught by a flame hair TA, who had the personality to match. Y
...more
Some books will leave a sour taste in your mouth. Some will uplift your spirits. Some will even touch your heart. And some…some have the power to rip your soul into tiny little pieces and leave nothing but a shell in its place.
Who knew a graphic novel could hold such power? But that’s exactly what happened.
Having finished Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, I feel like I just sparred against a two-tonne elephant with no means of escape. Each hit was worse than the last until I reached the end fee ...more
Who knew a graphic novel could hold such power? But that’s exactly what happened.
Having finished Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, I feel like I just sparred against a two-tonne elephant with no means of escape. Each hit was worse than the last until I reached the end fee ...more
I am speechless and in awe, but I'm going to try to write something coherent here. I was spellbound when reading this book. It represents the best of what anyone can hope for in a graphic novel. The illustrations and narrative text formed, in essence, an audiovisual presentation of experiences so personal and unapologetically honest that sometimes I couldn't believe the author included them since they cast his father and himself in an unfavorable light, at times.
This is a true life account from ...more
This is a true life account from ...more
The story of a Jew's survival.
Jews as depicted as mice and Germans as cats. A poignant story; really good, the character Vladek (the survivor): can you imagine him on a German prisoners camp, a freezing Autumn, birds falling from trees due to cold...and Vladek taking a shower at the river: to stay clean and warmy the day onward? or his wife (a mice too) complaining about rats!?...
True facts underly the story.
So so sad. What a truly shameful part of our history the Holocaust was. To think that a group of people would be treated so abysmally for no good reason just hurts my heart.
Despite the fact that this was a graphic novel that had the characters portrayed as mice (Jews), pigs(Poles) and cats (Germans), it did not lessen the disgust I had against the Nazi system that condoned, encouraged and justified this mistreatment of Jewish people; Jews were given curfews, forced to wear armbands, forced to u ...more
Despite the fact that this was a graphic novel that had the characters portrayed as mice (Jews), pigs(Poles) and cats (Germans), it did not lessen the disgust I had against the Nazi system that condoned, encouraged and justified this mistreatment of Jewish people; Jews were given curfews, forced to wear armbands, forced to u ...more
It just didn't do what I wanted.
I had high expectations, my friends, I had high expectations. That might not be fair, but there you go.
My biggest problem was the misused animals. The book is called Maus. The characters are mice and cats and pigs. BUT NONE OF THEM ACT LIKE MICE OR CATS OR PIGS. WHATS THE POINT? In conversation with my friend Barry* it came up that "It's just cats chasing mice. That's the extent of the metaphor." He disagrees, on the whole.. he actually quite enjoyed this (we're b ...more
I had high expectations, my friends, I had high expectations. That might not be fair, but there you go.
My biggest problem was the misused animals. The book is called Maus. The characters are mice and cats and pigs. BUT NONE OF THEM ACT LIKE MICE OR CATS OR PIGS. WHATS THE POINT? In conversation with my friend Barry* it came up that "It's just cats chasing mice. That's the extent of the metaphor." He disagrees, on the whole.. he actually quite enjoyed this (we're b ...more
Oh my! This book makes me want to read every interview with the author that I can find. One article I read credits this book (and two others) with changing the public's perception of comics and potentially starting the use of the term "graphic novel." I have read only one other graphic novel (the beautiful and brilliant Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast) so I am tremendously under-qualified to review this. I'm not sure what I expected when I picked this up but what I got
...more
Read for the 2015 Reading Challenge: #40 A graphic novel.
A very realistic story. Not just for the Nazi information but the personal story of the author’s father. He didn’t ease off anything, not their relationship, not with his father’s thoughts and that gives the story a special detail. The novel is very direct and powerful, and the characters portrayed by animals (mice, cats, pigs) sound very human. You might not found that much of new information if you are a WWII hardcore reader or viewer b ...more
A very realistic story. Not just for the Nazi information but the personal story of the author’s father. He didn’t ease off anything, not their relationship, not with his father’s thoughts and that gives the story a special detail. The novel is very direct and powerful, and the characters portrayed by animals (mice, cats, pigs) sound very human. You might not found that much of new information if you are a WWII hardcore reader or viewer b ...more
This is such an important and emotional story that brings a new dynamic to the well-documented World War 2 stories of the incarceration and mistreatment of the Jews, at the hands of the Nazi soldiers. As Spiegelman himself explains in the introduction, he wanted to bring meaning back to the stories that had lost all of their horror due to their notoriety.
This story would be a powerful one in any format, but the short speech, the simplistic and yet powerful illustrations, the shift between past ...more
This story would be a powerful one in any format, but the short speech, the simplistic and yet powerful illustrations, the shift between past ...more
2.5 stars
I guess i'm just really not in the mood for serious topic-ed books this summer. I went into this knowing it was so popular, and being on the topic of the Holocaust, I was expecting to be really moved by this. But I didn't like the way that the narration was done-- it follows the son of a Jew asking his father to recite the tale-- and strangely I found myself enjoying the parts that weren't about the 1940s flashbacks more than I enjoyed the story about the war. A lot of it bored me, stra ...more
I guess i'm just really not in the mood for serious topic-ed books this summer. I went into this knowing it was so popular, and being on the topic of the Holocaust, I was expecting to be really moved by this. But I didn't like the way that the narration was done-- it follows the son of a Jew asking his father to recite the tale-- and strangely I found myself enjoying the parts that weren't about the 1940s flashbacks more than I enjoyed the story about the war. A lot of it bored me, stra ...more
Wow. This is a very powerful book--more so than anything else I've read in a long time. Absolutely amazing storytelling. I need a quick break before jumping into the next volume, because it's just so dark. But I definitely recommend this to everyone, even if you don't normally read comics or graphic novels.
I feel like it's such a bad thing to give a book that tells the story of such a horrible time such a bad rating, but honestly this was just not worth reading.
There are so many movies and books about World War II that you really need a good or ground breaking idea to put out an original new thing. This one was such a very accurate retelling of what had happened during World War II which I am very familiar with. Not only is it a huge topic at school I've also seen countless movies featuring this t ...more
There are so many movies and books about World War II that you really need a good or ground breaking idea to put out an original new thing. This one was such a very accurate retelling of what had happened during World War II which I am very familiar with. Not only is it a huge topic at school I've also seen countless movies featuring this t ...more
An incredible book. It also feels quite timely, which is sad and scary.
I know I'm not breaking any new ground by calling Art Spiegelman's "Maus" amazing -- easily one of the best Holocaust memoirs ever published. But, as if that isn't achievement enough, "Maus" also is much more than that: a nakedly honest portrayal of the strained relationship between artist-writer Art and his elderly father Vladek, neither of whom has gotten over the loss of Anja -- Art's mother and Vladek's wife -- to suicide years before. (The four-page "Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case Hist
...more
I have a real, real problem with this book. It's a powerful piece, and tells the story of one family's experiences of the Holocaust in grim and gripping detail. it's also an amazing exploration of the relationship between a father and son. I'd love to give it 5 stars. And yet... I couldn't give a decent rating to a book that depicted black people, Muslims or gays as pigs, and I can't give a good rating to a book that depicts Poles as pigs. The book is not the history of the Polish people during
...more
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I was pleasantly surprised, at how much I enjoyed this account. Most of this volume describes the family's life leading to the the Holocaust. Hearing the story told to the author through his father, who is dealing with the hardships of aging, humanized the characters beyond their experience as victims. This was an important part of the story, because most Holocaust accounts that I've read haven't focused on the people, beyond the horror they lived throug ...more
I was pleasantly surprised, at how much I enjoyed this account. Most of this volume describes the family's life leading to the the Holocaust. Hearing the story told to the author through his father, who is dealing with the hardships of aging, humanized the characters beyond their experience as victims. This was an important part of the story, because most Holocaust accounts that I've read haven't focused on the people, beyond the horror they lived throug ...more
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“It would take many books, my life, and no one wants anyway to hear such stories.” - Vladek Spiegelman.
‘Maus, I’ and ‘Maus, II’ are two books that shatter one of the myths about the Holocaust; the myth that the monstrosity of Holocaust is beyond the realms of artistic imagination. Art Spiegelman refutes this through a brilliant and brutal depiction of the horrors of Holocaust in a comic book that will honestly shock the reader.
‘Maus’ is the painful story of ‘Vladek Spiegelman’, a survivor of th ...more
‘Maus, I’ and ‘Maus, II’ are two books that shatter one of the myths about the Holocaust; the myth that the monstrosity of Holocaust is beyond the realms of artistic imagination. Art Spiegelman refutes this through a brilliant and brutal depiction of the horrors of Holocaust in a comic book that will honestly shock the reader.
‘Maus’ is the painful story of ‘Vladek Spiegelman’, a survivor of th ...more
So good!!!
There has always been a debate about the impact and importance of cartoons and comic books. The debate pretty much boils down to the misconception that comic books simply tell adventure stories. This misconception irgnores several importnat things, the most important is that all fiction has its highs and lows. In literature, for instance, you have Austen and Twain, and then there is Radcliffe, who while a good writer, simply tells a story. This misconception is true of some comics, as it would b
...more
É sempre impressionante ler histórias que se passem nesta época, e fico sempre arrepiada por ver como as pessoas estavam dispostas a fazer certas coisas. :(
Gostaria que a arte tivesse sido um pouco melhor.
Não deixa de ser um livro que vale a pena ler :)
Gostaria que a arte tivesse sido um pouco melhor.
Não deixa de ser um livro que vale a pena ler :)
Κάποια φίλη μού έλεγε μια μέρα πως δεν αντέχει πια να δει άλλη ταινία για το Ολοκαύτωμα των Εβραίων, πως δηλαδή γυρίστηκαν πολλές και φτάνει.
Σ' εμένα λειτουργεί διαφορετικά. Ο Β Παγκόσμιος Πόλεμος είναι μια ιστορική στιγμή που με συγκλονίζει: όλη αυτή η μαζική φρίκη, ο συμπαγής παραλογισμός, η καθολική καταστροφή, ο ατέλειωτος ανθρώπινος πόνος κι η δυστυχία, αυτή η μεγάλη πληγή που ανοίξαν οι ίδιοι άνθρωποι πάνω στο σώμα τής ανθρωπότητας και που ακόμα και σήμερα μπορείς να ψηλαφίσεις την ουλή. Κ ...more
Σ' εμένα λειτουργεί διαφορετικά. Ο Β Παγκόσμιος Πόλεμος είναι μια ιστορική στιγμή που με συγκλονίζει: όλη αυτή η μαζική φρίκη, ο συμπαγής παραλογισμός, η καθολική καταστροφή, ο ατέλειωτος ανθρώπινος πόνος κι η δυστυχία, αυτή η μεγάλη πληγή που ανοίξαν οι ίδιοι άνθρωποι πάνω στο σώμα τής ανθρωπότητας και που ακόμα και σήμερα μπορείς να ψηλαφίσεις την ουλή. Κ ...more
The experience of reading the story of Art Spiegelman’s father – of his marital history, his family, and his capture by the Germans – in comic book form was fascinating. I’m no expert in graphic novel reading, but Spiegelman’s illustrations appear to subtly comment on the more profound issues facing both the son and the father. I read some of the negative reviews by other readers, and I understand the adverse reaction against a Holocaust remembrance that depicts Jews as mice, Poles (and other no
...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Judgement Book...: What did you think of Maus 1? | 1 | 8 | May 10, 2017 05:49PM | |
| memoir or what? | 1 | 8 | Jul 22, 2016 09:12AM |
Art Spiegelman (born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev) is New-York-based comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic memoir, Maus.
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“To die, it's easy. But you have to struggle for life.”
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“Disaster is my muse.”
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