Book Review: The Compete Maus by Art Spiegelman

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“Yes, life always takes the side of life, and somehow the victims are blamed. But it wasn’t the best people who survived, nor did the best ones die. It was random!”

Whether you’ve read it or not, I’m sure you’ve heard of Art Spiegelman's Maus. First and foremost, in 1992, Maus became the first graphic novel to ever win a Pulitzer Prize (the Special Award in Letters). Decades later, in 2022, Maus is still in the news, because a school in Tennessee removed the book from its curriculum, deeming it “inappropriate” on account of language and nudity. When a book is controversial/banned, I tend to want to read it more. I hope there are more like me out there (including those kids who are being deprived of the opportunity to learn about it in school! It's a true story of a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust. This is history . It happened!)

In his brilliantly crafted graphic novel, the author tells the story of his Polish-Jewish parents, Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, both of whom were Holocaust survivors, having been imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The narrative moves back and forth between his parents’ experiences in wartime Europe and his present-day relationship with the aging Vladek. The narrative of The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale is divided into two books: Book 1 (originally published in 1986) ,My Father Bleeds History covers the period preceding Vladek and Anja’s imprisonment and follows their story from the time they met, married, and started a family ( Art’s older brother, Richieu, one of the dedicatees of this book, did not survive the War) to the Nazi occupation and the persecution of Jews. What starts with restrictions, curfews, rationing, and seizure of businesses and personal property, intensifies as Jews are displaced, deported, imprisoned and much worse. Book 1 also includes a short strip titled Prisoner on the Hell Planet (originally written in 1972) in which the author depicts events leading up to his mother's suicide in 1968. Book#2 (published in 1991), And Here My Troubles Began, follows Vladek’s experiences in the concentration and work camps. Though he was separated from his wife in the camps, they managed to communicate with one another. Both of them survived, were liberated separately and were eventually reunited. We also continue to follow the author and his father in the present day.

The Complete Maus is a compelling work of non-fiction. Not does the author us about the atrocities faced by his Jewish parents and their families during the Holocaust, but the author also shares his own experiences going through the process of framing this book- having to coax his father to share his stories, his creative process and how the stories and publication of the first book affected him (The first segment was published in 1986, the second was printed in 1991). The author is brutally honest when he portrays his own guilt at his inability to truly comprehend what his parents went through and voices his concern over whether his choice of medium/format would be justified. The author skillfully combines artistic talent and masterful storytelling to share a part of his family’s story in a unique format. The graphic novel format employs anthropomorphic representation of Germans as cats, Jews as mice, ethnic Poles as pigs and Americans as dogs. Spiegelman does inject a good dose of humor in his present-day narrative. While his aging father’s miserliness , distrust and stubbornness do make for a few lighter moments in this harrowing tale, it is also not too hard to see how the trauma of the past casts a shadow on his present life. This is a heartbreaking story, told in a unique way, which does not make it any less real or any less hard-hitting. I spent hours reading and rereading parts of the book while also admiring the artwork.

Overall, this is an incredible book that is a must-read for those who are interested in reading about WWII and the Holocaust. Even if you don’t usually read graphic novels, I would still suggest picking this one up. You won’t be disappointed.