Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Maus: A Survivor's Tale. My Father Bleeds History

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Maus: A Survivor's Tale. My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

20 reviews

jcstokes95's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.25

I normally do not write reviews for books until after book club, but book club got delayed. So don’t see this as a review, just notes. More detailed review to come but suffice to say, this is very compelling and a heartbreaker. I am into the second volume (also for book club) and that one has one of the most evocative sections I’ve ever seen on the men who must assist in operating the gas chamber for their own murderers. But this first volume extensively focuses on the lead up to Poland’s occupation and how Vladek found a way to overcome as the walls continued to close in around him and his family.

I am not yet sure how I feel about the focus on the father and son; I think it says something about cycles of trauma obviously. But Vladek can be intensely frustrating in the modern day as he tells his story. It feels wrong to say this, but I’m sure readers would agree, he burns his dead wife’s journals for God’s sake. Obviously, much is done out of trauma, but he is often hard to like. But watching him endure horrors. I don’t know, it amplifies them even more in a way; it highlights the absolute randomness of cruelty. The relationship between father and son is very strained. I imagine this was a very hard book to write. Such a horrible thing happening to your parents can only intensify a difficult relationship.

On an entirely separate note, in general, this is not my favorite illustration style in a graphic novel. BUT it makes me wonder about how trends in the field have changed. I wonder if this black and white strip style was more common, though it also seems like maybe this was serialized which might account for some of these choices. I feel like graphic novels/memoirs now have such a different look, but I assume it’s just publishing trends? There are also so many fewer full-page spreads which are more common now. Is that an artist’s choice or was it just less common? When I have finished both volumes, I imagine I will be down a rabbit hole about the history of graphic novels in general, and the story itself. Surely, this deserves its cemented classic status.

Content Warnings