Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

15 reviews

ellisgoldstein's review

As a Jewish reader, holocaust stories tend to be a little too raw for me. I would like to finish this eventually but right now it is just too emotional 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Murder, Genocide, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Antisemitism, War, Violence, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs

demetrius_bennett's review

dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, War, Death, Hate crime, Violence, Racism, Antisemitism, and Confinement

Moderate: Excrement, Torture, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, and Cursing

Minor: Medical content, Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Alcohol, and Car accident

dspickes's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Antisemitism, Torture, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Deportation and Grief

Minor: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and War

annabeth_jackson's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Police brutality, Self harm, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, War, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, Grief, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Child death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Racism

torismazarine's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, War, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Violence, Self harm, and Police brutality

Moderate: Deportation

Minor: Vomit, Excrement, and Terminal illness

oceanwriter's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I didn't realize first going into this that this was a memoir. I guess from the cover I assumed it was a depiction of the Holocaust with a 'cat and mouse' metaphor. I realized as soon as I started reading that this wasn't fiction and it made the analogy all the more powerful.

Comic writer and illustrator Art Spiegel tells his father's WWII survival story in a series of two books (combined into one edition in this printing). Though not illustrations of humans, the imagery of the concentration camps (and what Jewish people went through in general) is as grim as you'd expect them to be. This isn't a watered-down narration that tried to spare the reader from the horrors. It's a raw and honest account.

The book is told brilliantly going back and forth between Art's conversations with his father as he relayed his story to that story unfolding on the pages. There are some abrupt starts and finished here and there, but it added to the tone of the book. There is still so much we don't know about what happened during the Holocaust that we may never learn.

In addition to being a book about the Holocaust (namely in Poland), it's also a book about the relationship between a father and son. Intergenerational trauma is a fascinating psychological phenomenon. This has often been seen among children with parents who have had traumatic experiences before their children were born. This along with the natural generational gap between parents and children makes up a lot of the subtext in Art and Vladek's story.

Perhaps it's needless to say that this book is going to stay with me for a long time. It's right up there with The Diary of a Young Girl and The Boy on the Wooden Box. The stories of these victims must be kept alive. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Racism, Murder, Blood, Genocide, Violence, Antisemitism, Mental illness, Gun violence, Excrement, Confinement, and War

Moderate: Animal death

sknappy1's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

A very difficult, but very powerful read. The artist details his father's experiences as a Holocaust survivor, as told directly by his father. What I appreciate it about this was the breadth that was covered. While Anne Frank's experience focuses on hiding, and Elie Wiesel's focuses on the concentration camps, this this book covers a broader range of everything. You see and experience the gradual buildup of everything from the beginning before the problems started and then how everything got progressively worse. You see how Vladek experienced losing his successful business, to having to hide, to being in the ghetto, all the scheming required to get by, to being in a concentration camp, what happened after they got out of the camp, etc. You also learn about so many other people's experiences based on his descriptions of what happened to people that he knew. This book really made cry a few times, so go in prepared. It starts off pretty easy, but later on there are some real gut-wrenching moments, but that's the reality of how it was. I also appreciate how the author details the difficult relationship he has with his father.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Confinement, Death, Antisemitism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mental illness, Child death, Suicide, War, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Torture

jassieex's review

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Genocide, and Violence

Moderate: Torture and Terminal illness

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

walskishere's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense

I don't feel comfortable rating this, but I did want to make a "review" to say I enjoyed this. I read both parts in a single day. I liked the present-day-to-flashback thing that was going on. I think adding in how Mr.  Spiegelman is in the present caused reflection on how the Holocaust experiences affect the survivors.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, War, Police brutality, Hate crime, Gun violence, Murder, Genocide, Torture, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Blood, Grief, and Deportation

Moderate: Excrement, Xenophobia, Child abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Terminal illness

velokei's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Something everyone should read
It was so beautiful and raised so many questions that are unable to be answered. It handled the holocaust in a striking way and was open and honest about the uncomfortability on profiting off of generational trauma 

Read for a second time for essay in January: I can’t recommend this book enough!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Deportation, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Murder, War, Violence, Antisemitism, Racism, Torture, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Gore, and Genocide