Maus I & II Paperback Box Set
A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written— Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.
Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.
Reviews (217)
Graphic Novel Converted
I am going to preface this review by saying that I have a general disdain for graphic novels. There was a time that I would never elect to read one of my own volition. That all changed when I was assigned Maus for an English class. Upon hearing that our syllabus included a graphic novel, I groaned in tacit protest. I read both volumes of Maus cover to cover before the assigned completion date, and was very moved by the story, which is about a son trying to understand his Holocaust-survivor father. There are no images of humans in this book--the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Nazis as cats, and the Poles as pigs. The protagonist has always felt a void between he and his father, but develops some understanding and compassion as he begins interviewing him about his experiences in the Holocaust. In terms of Holocaust literature, I would deem this a "must-read".
Must Read
I am reviewing the paperback set, which includes both volumes I and II. That's important. You really need to read both volumes. While they were published separately and years apart, only by reading both will you read the entire story. First, shame on me for not having read this years ago. I recall having heard the words, "You have to read Maus!" but I never acted on it. Perhaps that was during my "contempt for graphic novels" phase, before I understood that there is some information that can best be conveyed using a graphic novel format. (The book that converted me was a graphic novel adaptation of the 9/11 commission's report.) These two books are a must read for any educated person. You will come away from the reading experience not so much with new insights on the Holocaust but with a deeper understanding. What more is there to say about the Holocaust? Plenty. Personalizing it, putting a face on it, always drives home what happened a good deal more than just hearing the numbers; that's the reason The Diary of Anne Frank remains so widely read. And the images, disturbing yet "graphic", will expand your understanding. This is the first place I have encountered a diagram of the infamous gas chambers and how they operated. There are actually two stories in Maus, The first story is the tale of the author's father Vladek as he navigates the years before, during, and immediately after WWII. The second story is the tale of the author's challenging relationship with his father, who is a manipulative hustler. The very quality which enabled him to survive WWII also makes him a somewhat contemptible human being. At one point, the author's wife suggests that perhaps not all of Vladek survived the war, but I rather think that Vladek's character was very much in existence from the start. For example, early on when Vladek decides to get married, he callously throws aside his girlfriend of 4 years, blaming her for the relationship's very existence because she threw herself at him in the beginning. But his reason for not marrying her is simple: she has no money. Instead, he marries Anja, the author's mother, whose father is a millionaire. This works out for him immediately, when his new father-in-law asks about his career plans. Vladek says he will go back to selling textiles, but his father-in-law gives him a textile factory instead. As the war begins and Jews start to find themselves increasingly ostracized and bereft of jobs and professions, Vladek takes to the black market. Over and over throughout the two books, we see him find a way, less resourceful than hustler, no doubt frequently at the expense of others, even of others' lives. For example, in a cattle car in which he has physically found a way to elevate himself above the others (enabling him to become one of the only survivors), he is able to reach snow (read: water). When others ask him for some, he tells them that he can only reach enough for himself. Even towards the end of his life, Vladek retains his hustler personality. He sneaks into the local hotel to make use of their spa and workout facilities. He plays bingo there for free. He seeks to return half-eaten food to the local grocery store and when the manager understandably refuses, plays the Holocaust card and earns himself a $5 credit. He even fakes heart problems TWICE, both times to get the author to drop everything and travel miles to come to his side; the second time involves a plane ride to an ambulance to a hospital - where tests are run and Vladek is then sent home! No wonder the author's relationship with his father was difficult. Vladek himself was a difficult man. And yet, he was his father. At first I wondered at the inclusion of the modern-day events in Maus, but they do add a great deal to the story and enable us to really get a handle on who Vladek is. The same man who tries to game the system by getting something for nothing at the nearby hotel is the man who gamed the system and survived the Holocaust, repeatedly skirting death.
Important, Different from other Holocaust Era Presentations
Very clever way to present the tragedy not only of Auschwitz but the impact on survivors and the author, a son of survivors. Especially poignant is the section in Volume 1 called, "Prisoner on the Hell Planet." As I understand it, this product was the genesis for the later books. I found some new details that I haven't read before in other Holocaust literature. Troubling, always, the depravity of man and the insensibility of the Holocaust. We may never understand the psychologies of hate and destruction and the forces that led to Germans (and Poles) of that time in history to act out with such disregard for others. I hope we never can "understand" this incomprehensibility but successfully evolve away from cultural, political, religious, economic hegemonic leadership and ideologies.
Deeply personal and a triumph of medium
Maus is a holocaust survival story, a biography, and an autobiography. Written as a graphic novel (and winner of a Pulitzer Prize), Art Spiegelman captures the process of interviewing his father while simultaneously telling his father's story. In that sense, the text is very self-reflexive - there are parts in it showing Spiegelman working to create the very page you read, as previous parts of the his father's story are reintroduced from previous portions of the text. The story is complex. It not only details the horrors of the holocaust and the extreme lengths to which people went to survive, but it also captures the harrowing guilt survivors faced, and the lifelong aftereffects of the war. It also shows the struggle between father and son, both through the lens of a typical familial challenge, and of those unique between a survivor and child born afterwards. Spiegelman clearly suffers guilt from not being able to completely empathize with his father, as well as suffering from uncertainty over how publicly to criticize his father via this biography despite everything he went through. In sum, unsurprisingly, is a powerful work that is strengthened by the graphic medium.
Incredibly heart-wrenching. A masterpiece.
It lives up to the hype. A masterpiece worth owning. Few graphic novels are capable of achieving what Maus does, especially at the time this was written. It was a risk to put it into this format, but I think that's what has given it staying power. A must-read. I really wish this was used in history classes, but I also think it was enjoyable to read. I experienced a broad range of emotions throughout the volumes and cannot impress enough how excellent it is.
A Story of Genocide, Survival, Trauma, and Love
The Complete Maus is a graphic novel that tells two stories, one set in 1930s and 1940s Europe, and the other in roughly present day 1980s America, when and where the book was being written. The first story is one that breaks the fourth wall in that it’s the story of the author, Art Spiegelman, and his father, the elderly Vladek Spiegelman. Art is a cartoonist interviewing his father about what it was like to be a Polish Jew during the buildup to WWII. He tells the story of his (as well as his wife Anja’s) trials and ultimate survival of the war and the Holocaust. As the story progresses, we discover that Vladek has remarried to another survivor named Mala in the years since Anja passed away in 1968. But that relationship is a complicated one (to say the least) as Vladek is a deeply flawed man in his old age. These flaws cause rifts between Art and Vladek as well. This first story zeroes in on these complications between Vladek, Art, and Mala. The second story is a love story between Vladek and Anja as a young couple facing the dangerous and genocidal landscape of WWII Europe. Throughout the late 1930s until the war ended in 1945, the two relied on each other for the strength to survive. Even when things were at their most bleak, while both were imprisoned in Auschwitz, they managed to get messages back-and-forth to each other, and Vladek even managed to get his wife some food here and there. Once the war ended and they both escaped with their lives, Vladek found Anja again back in their hometown and they made a life together, eventually having a son named Art in 1950. The book is full of details about what many Jewish people experienced during the war. Anja came from a wealthy family, and Vladek was a successful business owner himself. But they all started losing their businesses and money as the landscape started to change. Vladek and Anja survived being sent to the ghettos in large part due to Vladek’s determined, clever, resourceful fortitude. They hid in bunkers with dirt and mice. In Auschwitz, Anja nearly died of starvation, and Vladek nearly of typhus. They were both tortured and beaten by Nazis, and Vladek was nearly murdered by Nazis on several occasions. They both lost nearly their entire families to the Nazis, including their first son Richieu, their parents, siblings, cousins and friends. The two stories come together near the end as the timelines merge. That’s when the point is really driven home about how Vladek’s experiences in the war affected his psychology in later years. Although Vladek is a sympathetic character in his youth (smart, clever, resourceful and someone the reader really roots for), he is not depicted that way as an elderly man. This is a big part of the struggle for Art, attempting to reconcile the cheap, stubborn, argumentative (and sometimes racist) elderly man with the man he was in his youth. Vladek wasn’t the only one who suffered as a result of the trauma experienced during the war. Anja had suffered from some sort of affliction that saw her hospitalized before the war, but she committed suicide in 1968. And Art battled the ghost of his dead brother Richieu, whom he had never met. When it seemed that a being sent to a work or death camp was imminent, Anja’s sister thought she could get her kids to safety in the countryside, so Anja and Vladek sent their very young son Richieu with her, hoping he’d have a better chance of surviving. Ultimately when she and the kids were hunted by the Nazis, she killed herself and all the kids to prevent them from suffering a more painful death upon capture. And even though Richieu was dead before Art was ever born, he lived with his dead brother’s ghost ever-present as he grew up in Richieu’s shadow. In the book, people are drawn as animals. For example, Jews are drawn as mice and the Nazis are cats. I don’t know whether it makes the work more or less impressive as a result, but I almost completely forgot that they were mice and cats within a couple of pages. What makes this book great for me is the storytelling, not the metaphor. This is the story of two lovers who survived one of the most terrible times in human history. They relied on each other, and even under the worst of circumstances, they persevered together. And it was also the story of the aftermath, the damage done and the trauma inflicted upon those who did manage to survive and the generations that followed. I’ve never been a big graphic novel fan, but this is a fine piece of work. This book made me think of a poem written by Leonard Cohen poem from his book “Let Us Compare Mythologies” – 'Lovers' During the first pogrom they Met behind the ruins of their homes – Sweet merchants trading: her love For a history full of poems. And at the hot ovens they Cunningly managed a brief Kiss before the soldier came To knock out her golden teeth. And in the furnace itself As the flames flamed higher. He tried to kiss her burning breasts As she burned in the fire. Later he often wondered: Was their barter completed? While men around him plundered. And knew he had been cheated.
Great book
Great book filled with powerful visuals and great story telling. This hardcover edition is well made and looks great. It was packaged well and arrived quickly. Maus presents the horrors of the holocaust in an accessible way by portraying the characters as animals, but don’t let that fool you, the book doesn’t pull any punches. The book also describes the fallout of trauma and the ways in which it can alter people’s lives and impact their relationships. The author tracks his own life as the child of holocaust survivors, and the impact that their trauma—then decades in the past—had on him. This is a great book and I highly recommend it.
Hardcover Includes Parts I and II
Browsing through the reviews and comments about Maus, I saw that there was some question as to whether the hardcover edition comprised Parts I and II. This is understandable because the product is listed in Amazon as "The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale (No 1)," which seems contradictory. When I was considering purchasing it, I looked at the number of pages that were listed for the edition and guessed that it included both parts of the story. So I bought it, it arrived fine, and I am now writing to confirm that yes, this edition includes I and II. Amazon should look into this and remove the "(No 1)" from the listing's title.
Give It A Go
Growing up I did not find comics interesting at all as so many of my friends did. After coming across this book and with the source material presented I thought I would give this a shot. What an interesting approach in dealing with the subject matter being addressed, and after completing it I was sold on the graphic novel. It’s so unique and rather than doing a deep dive in reviewing, I rather suggest to give this one a read. I loved it, and after reading I set out to find other graphic novels.
Don't ignore this book because it is a graphic novel; don't buy it for that reason either. Very worthwhile.
I have been meaning to get this book and its sequel for many years. I bought it recently for my grandson and read both books before giving it to him. This is a very personal account of the holocaust. The members of my family who survived all left in the mid thirties. None of the rest survived, so this description of what it was like inside the area of German control was a first for me. As a graphic novel, this is a complex art form combining visual and verbal components. I'm not a comic book fan, nor did I read many when I was a child. But I found this format intriguing. I learned a lot and the format stimulated a lot of thinking.
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