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"Maus" is a Holocaust survivor story told in a format like no other: the graphic novel. It is known to be one of the first popular graphic novels published and is considered a modern classic in this genre. In it cartoonist, Art Spiegelman, writes of the experiences of his parents in Poland during Hitler's reign. One of the piece's most distinguishing and memorable features for which is it remembered are that the characters are portrayed as various animals rather than humans: Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, the Americans as dogs, etc.
Rather than taking away from the emotional aspects of the story, instead the reader is moved in a totally different way, showing that human emotion, pain, suffering, and humor can be felt keenly regardless of the form the characters take. "Maus" is an entirely different way to experience one of the most horrible and regrettable times in our history, while also coming to grips with an idea of how the survivors (and their children) live in a post-war United States but never truly escape the horrors that they lived through in Europe.
"Maus - Part 1: My Father Bleeds History" covers the period of time from just before the Nazi invasion of Poland to the time at which the author's parents arrive at the Auschwitz concentration camp. "Maus - Part 2: And Here My Troubles Began" picks up from there and takes us to the escape of the Spiegelmans to the United States. For those interested in knowing more about the graphic novel, the author's decision to use this format and characters as animals, and other tidbits of information, there is "MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus", a new publication that comes complete with a DVD archive of interviews, historical documents, and a look at the author's notebooks and sketches.
