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Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
(Maus #2)
by
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, 144 pages
Published
September 1992
by Pantheon Books
(first published 1991)
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Start your review of Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus, #2)
This second volume continues the powerful story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about the author and his dad's story. It is horrific but at the same time it carries a message of hope and survival.
In this volume we find Vladek in Auschwitz and his experiences there are described in detail, however, amidst the atrocities the author is able to interject some humour here and there. The author also explores deeper his relationship with hi ...more
I haven't been able to stop thinking about the author and his dad's story. It is horrific but at the same time it carries a message of hope and survival.
In this volume we find Vladek in Auschwitz and his experiences there are described in detail, however, amidst the atrocities the author is able to interject some humour here and there. The author also explores deeper his relationship with hi ...more
Since I'd read Maus I about a year ago and Nadja Spiegelman's enticing memoir in the summertime, I was beyond ecstatic to find this second volume on the shelves of my local library.
And since it's been quite a while, I was grateful that this volume had a quick recap at the start of what occurred before:
Art Spiegelman, a cartoonist born after WW II, is working on a book about what happened to his parents as Jews in wartime Poland. He has made a series of visits to his childhood home in Rego Pa ...more
Fantastic conclusion. I think I enjoyed this one even more than the first. The two stories of Vladek in the past and Vladek in the present really explore interesting topics of generational gaps as well as national differences. Art's American sensibility versus his father's stinginess--a result of his wartime survival--is extremely understandable and well explored in this volume. It's a harrowing story but so uniquely told and such a wonderful insight into one man's Holocaust survival, I would hi
...more
This was even more devastating than Maus I.
Vladek Spiegelman's story is continued here. In Maus I, we left Vladek and his wife Anja at the gates of Auschwitz. In this volume, we are treated to an insider's view of daily life at a Nazi concentration camp.
As with Maus I, the fact that it is written in comic-book format does nothing to soften the impact - if anything, it heightens it. In the camp, the inmates are subjected to a slow, drawn-out death sentence as the guards play with them like... wel ...more
Vladek Spiegelman's story is continued here. In Maus I, we left Vladek and his wife Anja at the gates of Auschwitz. In this volume, we are treated to an insider's view of daily life at a Nazi concentration camp.
As with Maus I, the fact that it is written in comic-book format does nothing to soften the impact - if anything, it heightens it. In the camp, the inmates are subjected to a slow, drawn-out death sentence as the guards play with them like... wel ...more
Such a powerful book!
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
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
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.
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It’s always nice when you completely understand why something has achieved its status. A book of humor, horror, and above all, complexity. Spiegelman tells his father’s story as faithfully as he can, while remaining aware that he can’t tell that story faithfully at all – it’ll always be clouded by the way he views his father. I’ve read plenty of books about the Holocaust – academic volumes, memoir, fiction – but this is the best at capturing just how random survival was, and how “survivor” both
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I think the rating I gave this novel was too low. I wish I could give this book as many stars as possible. This book, and the book that came before it are so important. They let us know about the struggles that the author's own father faced during the Holocaust. We even got to how the father acted when Spiegelman asked his father questions to get information. This story is such a different way of compiling the hardships of the author's father that it made it so much more compelling. I would reco
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Jan 21, 2019
Dennis
rated it
it was amazing
Recommended to Dennis by:
Amélie
Shelves:
graphic-novels-comics-manga,
war
And thus the tale is complete.
In this second volume the meta-level is even more prominent as Spiegelman’s struggle with putting his father’s tale to paper becomes an important part of the narrative.
It’s called A Survivor’s Tale though. And Vladek Spiegelman’s story is still the focal point.
The narrative moves forward to his time in Auschwitz. And no matter how often I read or see something about Auschwitz it never ceases to deeply affect me. It’s hard to understand what despicable things human b ...more
In this second volume the meta-level is even more prominent as Spiegelman’s struggle with putting his father’s tale to paper becomes an important part of the narrative.
It’s called A Survivor’s Tale though. And Vladek Spiegelman’s story is still the focal point.
The narrative moves forward to his time in Auschwitz. And no matter how often I read or see something about Auschwitz it never ceases to deeply affect me. It’s hard to understand what despicable things human b ...more
Vol 2.... Pulitzer prize winning book.
Art Spieglman takes us deep inside in concentration camps....and really shows us how life was day to day.
This book is so hard to put down once you begin...
It's so frickin sad --- ( we take the in horrors on probably the deepest of deepest levels, from a book about the Holocaust)
The graphic depictions are the most brilliant creation of all ... everything about these
illustrations works ---( their artistic design and purpose are flawless).
...more
Art Spieglman takes us deep inside in concentration camps....and really shows us how life was day to day.
This book is so hard to put down once you begin...
It's so frickin sad --- ( we take the in horrors on probably the deepest of deepest levels, from a book about the Holocaust)
The graphic depictions are the most brilliant creation of all ... everything about these
illustrations works ---( their artistic design and purpose are flawless).
...more
"I can't even make sense out of my relationship with my father--how am I supposed to make sense out of the Holocaust?" - Art Spiegelman
‘Maus, II: And Here My Troubles Began’ continues with the painful story of ‘Vladek Spiegelman’ from where ‘Maus I’ left off but in a more intense manner. ‘Maus, II: And Here My Troubles Began’ is the completion of a masterpiece by Art Spiegelman. The book delves further deep into the everlasting struggle that his family had to go through even after his parents su ...more
‘Maus, II: And Here My Troubles Began’ continues with the painful story of ‘Vladek Spiegelman’ from where ‘Maus I’ left off but in a more intense manner. ‘Maus, II: And Here My Troubles Began’ is the completion of a masterpiece by Art Spiegelman. The book delves further deep into the everlasting struggle that his family had to go through even after his parents su ...more
There are so many layers to this story! Is it reality? It it only our perception of Art’s reality? Is it biographical? Autobiographical? Fictional? Historical? Fact? A representation of fact? I don’t know. I don’t care. I love it anyway, no because, of its intangibility and abstract nature. It touches my heart and makes me feel an emotional attachment to the horrifying story and to the factual history behind it, regardless of its classification.
There are many subtle clues towards Art’s intentio ...more
There are many subtle clues towards Art’s intentio ...more
I flew directly into this book after finishing Maus 1 because how could I not? I needed to know the rest of Vladek's story from the time he and his wife entered Auschwitz. I also needed to hear the rest of the story between him and his son, Art, with whom he had a stormy relationship. And so, as I turned the first page of this book, I braced myself for what was to come, knowing it would be bad, though I was still unprepared for what amounted to diving into an open wound.
Reading this book left m ...more
Reading this book left m ...more
The conclusion to the powerful story of Maus. A son is collecting his father's horror stories from the Holocaust. Told as mice vs cats. I still can't imagine what these people went through.
The art tells the story, it's grim art for a grim story. This also shows how difficult it is to come out of a survival mode mentality. Vladik is still a surviver.
I hope the world never sees anything like this again.
This is a classic book and yes, it deserves to be on the top of the Best of Graphic Novel lists ...more
The art tells the story, it's grim art for a grim story. This also shows how difficult it is to come out of a survival mode mentality. Vladik is still a surviver.
I hope the world never sees anything like this again.
This is a classic book and yes, it deserves to be on the top of the Best of Graphic Novel lists ...more
I am struggling to write a cohesive review for the second book and final chapter to this saga. The brilliance continues while the story becomes even more difficult to read. It is tough to describe. This heartbreakingly challenging father-son relationship becomes more the focal point of this book and it is masterfully drawn and examined in every frame. Laid out on these pages is the guilt felt by a son who does not understand his father, but who knows his father has endured and survived the unima
...more
I didn't like this quite as much as the first volume, but it is still amazing and sad.
...more
Brilliant. This story in comic book format should be widely distributed for free in the US and other places where lots of people seem to think that Nazis are OK. Nazis are not OK.
I have very mixed feelings about this one. I greatly appreciate that this is not a romanticized pounce to capitalize on one of the greatest traumas of history. Working as a bookseller, I’ve seen any number of trends come and go, but the one that endures is the Holocaust. And sadly, only a minority are as honest as Maus.
Graphic novel form is a fascinating medium to use. I think we are all in agreement that language does not stretch far enough to describe - in any manner of adequacy – the horror ...more
Graphic novel form is a fascinating medium to use. I think we are all in agreement that language does not stretch far enough to describe - in any manner of adequacy – the horror ...more
Maus is a masterpiece, and it's in the nature of such things to generate mysteries, and pose more questions than they answer. But if the notion of a canon means anything, Maus is there at the heart of it. Like all great stories, it tells us more about ourselves than we could ever suspect.
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*Reread March 2015 for school
I cannot get over how powerful these book are. I'll be doing a video review soon so stay tuned for that. ...more
I cannot get over how powerful these book are. I'll be doing a video review soon so stay tuned for that. ...more
If this novel was only narrating the experience of a concentration camp survivor it would have been a different sort of a read. Art Spiegelman drew Part I of his father's story as one that is interspersed between everyday conversation and squabbles, and a relationship between father and son that is most definitely strained.
Part II takes the same template further, but digs much deeper into their personal relationship. For one, I never thought that a survivor might feel guilty of having lived thro ...more
Part II takes the same template further, but digs much deeper into their personal relationship. For one, I never thought that a survivor might feel guilty of having lived thro ...more
Find this and other Reviews at In Tori Lex
In this volume the author balances detailing the relationship that he has with his father, with describing the atrocities that his father lived through. He notes that he's not sure Vladek did survive Auschwitz, not in a way that's important. The fourth wall is also broken, and we learn how much the author struggled to tell this story, and how uncertain he was that he would be able to do it justice.
It's clear from the notoriety that this vo ...more
In this volume the author balances detailing the relationship that he has with his father, with describing the atrocities that his father lived through. He notes that he's not sure Vladek did survive Auschwitz, not in a way that's important. The fourth wall is also broken, and we learn how much the author struggled to tell this story, and how uncertain he was that he would be able to do it justice.
It's clear from the notoriety that this vo ...more
Jan 08, 2008
Madeline
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
anyone who doesn't think of graphic novels as "real literature"
Shelves:
honors-program,
graphic-novels
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
Jun 16, 2008
booklady
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
anyone
Recommended to booklady by:
Melissa
Shelves:
books-on-books,
horror,
crime,
history,
2008,
adventure,
autobiography,
fiction,
graphic,
war
This second Maus book finishes up the story of Vladek and Anja Spiegelman's experiences in Auschwitz and Birkenau at the end of WWII. 'Maus' is the German word for 'mouse' and Art Spiegelman – the son and author – chose to portray the Jewish people in his cartoon as mice because of a disparaging German newspaper article in the mid-1930s which belittled Mickey Mouse as the most miserable ideal ever revealed and upheld the Swastika Cross as the highest. His Nazis are therefore cats. Interestingly,
...more
This book was harder to get through then the first one. We learn so much that isn’t necessarily taught to us in school, from what I can remember. It’s hard reading about the horrors that not only Vladek but every other war prisoner had to go through. This book is so important
Well once you start this book you cannot stop or at least those are my sentiments. The book really carries on where the first left off -at the gates of Auschwitz - (no wonder now they are collected in a single volume) and as harrowing as the first volume was this is even more so - really the two books should be reviewed together to preserve the passion and horror of the story. This is not a book to be taken lightly which considering it is really little more than a comic speaks greatly of the pow
...more
Yep. There's a reason this won a Pulitzer Prize.
...more
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(Note: This review is pretty much the same as what I wrote for Volume 1)
Using the comic book format to tell the story of the author's parents surviving the Holocaust seemed like a strange way of going about it. Now that I finished the book, I can't imagine how it could have been done better. Depicting Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, French as frogs and Americans as dogs really seemed weird. But now upon reflection, it's amazing how much that facilitated conveyance of the emotion be ...more
Using the comic book format to tell the story of the author's parents surviving the Holocaust seemed like a strange way of going about it. Now that I finished the book, I can't imagine how it could have been done better. Depicting Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, French as frogs and Americans as dogs really seemed weird. But now upon reflection, it's amazing how much that facilitated conveyance of the emotion be ...more
Sep 23, 2018
Renuka
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
non-fiction,
memoir,
graphic-novels,
comics,
cry_worthy,
close-to-my-heart,
masterpiece,
dark,
biography,
translated
Maus II is not just about the Holocaust, it is also about the tortured relationship between the author and his father.
Artie confesses to his wife, Francoise, "When I was a kid I used to think about which of my parents I'd let the Nazis take to the ovens if I could only save one of them. Usually, I saved my mother. Do you think that's normal?" His wife dryly replies, "Nobody's normal,"
Throughout Maus, Vladek's story is paralleled by Art's attempts to come to terms with the adamant, Scrooge-like, ...more
Artie confesses to his wife, Francoise, "When I was a kid I used to think about which of my parents I'd let the Nazis take to the ovens if I could only save one of them. Usually, I saved my mother. Do you think that's normal?" His wife dryly replies, "Nobody's normal,"
Throughout Maus, Vladek's story is paralleled by Art's attempts to come to terms with the adamant, Scrooge-like, ...more
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