Maus a Survivors Tale

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Easily as good as the crits - Rated
Over the years I have read many books centred or reflecting upon holocaust atrocities and I had thought the power to shock would have dimmed. Maus took me by surprise with the depth of sickening revulsion I felt at the horrors which beset Spiegelman's family of Polish Jews. I attribute that to the medium, with the graphic portrayal of events leading to a much quicker and more immediate sense of the unimaginably awful conditions.

As with other such memoirs, there is, however, a strain of hope and plenty triumphs for the embattled human spirits encountered between the pages; and the author's depiction of his own Father (heroic in his resistance to the Nazi onslaught but very difficult to live with in later life) could hardly be termed sentimental. These elements combine to emphasise the realism and attractiveness of the account.

I regard this book as equivalent in status and importance to Anne Frank's Diary, hence a must-read.

More weight given to the medium of 'graphic novel'.... - Rated
It's quite a lengthy graphic novel, and is an account of the Holocaust, with mice representing Jews, Cats as the Nazis, Americans as dogs and Pigs as the Polish. This is a brilliant conceit, and the writer makes full and effective use of it.

This is harrowing and incredible, but very real and present and with very human, flawed characters that hit home beyond what a film or a book can do for a wide range of audience types. The illustrations aid the narrative, placing soft, engaging images and dark atmosphere into a bleak tale....It seems a very 'neat' story in places, but perhaps there is some memory allowance here. It's another important piece of historic interpretation.

The tragic tale of Vladek Spiegelman, Holocaust Survivor - Rated
What got Art Spiegelman's "Maus: A Survivor's Tale" noticed was the simple and rather obvious conceit of telling a story about the Holocaust in which the Jews are portrayed as mice and the Nazis as cats. But the reason Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize is because ultimately the story being told is more important than the metaphor employed by the cartoonist.

Vladek Spiegelman was a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Holocaust and "Maus" is about the attempt of his son, a cartoonist, to come to terms with not only his father in Rego Park, New York, but the terrible things that happened to his father in Poland in this first half of the tale, "My Father Bleeds History." This proves not to be rhetorical hyperbole, because Vladek's past becomes almost omnipresent as he tells his story to his son. Almost as important, the suicide of Artie's mother comes into play as well, for ultimately in this story, as in life, everything is related.

Tragically, as Vladek reveals more of the events that irrevocably altered not only his own life but that of his son, Artie is repelled rather than drawn closer to his father and the gulf between then becomes clearer. Knowledge, which should bring insight and understanding, fails and creates only bitterness. However, you must remember this is but the first half of the story, which concludes in "And Here My Troubles Began."

What makes "Maus" remarkable is not that it is a "comic book," what the "New York Times" called "an epic story told in tiny pictures," but that it is a very intimate story about someone who survived the Holocaust. The body might survive the concentration camp, but "Maus" is about what happens to the mind, the heart and the soul.

Deeply moving yet charming - Rated
This is a magnificent piece of writing - not only does it reach to the heart of the Holocaust in an unembellished and truly personal way, but it brings a charming and unassuming humour with it that will have any reader deeply touched.

The illustrations and use of the animal personifications (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice) is delightfully done and Spiegelman uses his own tragedy to communicate the horror of the Holocaust without sensationalising, giving a vivid and true to life story of the atrocity of genocide.

Maus brings the Holocaust experience to a human level. - Rated
I happened upon Maus in the public library and was instantly captivated. Mr. Spiegelman has written down his family's experience in a way that is touching, heartwrenching, and compelling. I look forward to using this book in my work as a child therapist, with adolescents. The format will capture their interest in a way history books cannot. This contribution to literature is especially important now, considering the resurgence of white supremacist propaganda.