Reviews with content warning for Violence - Maus: A História de um Sobrevivente. I, O Meu Pai Sangra História

What can I add to Maus which has not already been said? Long on my TBR list, the recent nonsense around its censorship (and Spiegelman's excellent retorts) simply moved it to the top.

As many have said, if I have any criticism it is in the work's brevity. It is the nature of the memoir and the storytelling of his father, perhaps, that the waiting, the agonies, and the uncertainties are glossed over with a few waves of the verbal hand. This is part of the realism of the telling, and I embrace it. At the same time, there is more to know. At its best, for any who may not easily have found access to this vital history (for whatever reason), Maus succeeds, with enough of the smaller details (the attitudes of the Poles and many of the Jews, of the younger Jewish generations (narrator included) and of the privileged who hope to buy their way out of the horrors before the) to demand readers find more.

The Holocaust and surrounding environs are too easily found on the glib lips of politicians wishing to score hyperbolic points these days. Maus, when it is permitted to be read, might ground us again.

Content Warnings

rtaire's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Support banned books!

I definitely recommend most everyone read this book (and the second volume). It's a beautifully nuanced memoir of a holocaust survivor and the complicated relationship between him and his son, the comic artist writing/drawing the book. Glad I read the book now when I am struggling with all the grey space of my own relationship between myself and my mother. Makes me feel more at ease about the lack of clear distinctions of "morally good" and "bad", the messy in-between of reality.

The art style really helped to put some distance between me and the extremely difficult subject matter of the Holocaust, which allowed me to keep reading when I might have otherwise needed to stop to preserve my mental health. Still, some of the images are truly haunting and it helps to be prepared to know that these books cover the worst of what humanity is capable of. I still think it is very worth it to remember these atrocities, especially at a time when people are trying to erase them and ban important books like this.

Content Warnings

bookgirllife's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is not the type of literature I usually consume, in that I don’t typically read comic books, let alone non-fiction ones about the Holocaust. I picked it up for that very reason, and due to the recent banned books lists its been on. I was intrigued to see what all the fuss was about. Safe to say, although I did expect it to be a little heavy, due to the themes address, I was wholly unprepared for just how tense and dark the comic actually was. I was even more unprepared, it turned out, for just how impactful and moving it would be. From the narrative style to the storytelling to the character-building, Spiegelman blew me away with just how good this comic was. I suppose there is a reason why it is the only graphic novel to have ever won a Pulitzer.

The writing was incredibly accessible, which I think makes it easier for all types of readers to truly comprehend the atrocities of the Holocaust and the constant anxiety endured by the Jews who lived and died through that horrifying experience. Spiegelman did an excellent job of conveying that through his father’s story. I thought the pacing , initially fast but then as the story develops it takes on a medium pace, was very smart and deliberate. It drew out the tension so well, which gives the reader an insightful perspective.

Maus follow’s the story of Spiegelman’s father, a Holocaust survivor. We get glimpses into how survival has shaped his character and personality.

The way Vladek rations and saves his money is definitely a trauma response to the events of the Holocaust, though it is addressed that other survivors don’t share this trait. Of course, trauma manifests itself differently for everyone.

In beginning with his father’s life, pre-war, Spiegelman, as he says within the comic, makes the story even more human. This choice allows the reader to connect with, for lack of a better term, the “characters” (I recognise that these are real people). The Jews that experienced the Holocaust were just regular people leading regular, even well-off, lives before their right to their own lives was cruelly and evilly taken from them.

The themes addressed in this comic, including the Holocaust itself and the widespread anti-Semitism of that time, as well as family, grief and war trauma, are all such important topics to consider. I must say, although there are some graphic scenes probably unsuitable for really young children, this is a comic that has the potential to teach kids a lot more about the Holocaust than history books are likely to achieve. It is impossible not to feel its impact when reading this. Spiegelman has done his father a real credit with this graphic novel, telling such a story in an authentic manner while remaining true to himself in the medium must have been no easy feat. He does a powerful job of conveying the emotion and inhumanity of the Holocaust. This book really challenged me to think about what Jewish people went through during the second World War, driven from their homes into concentration camps and massacred for no other reason than being Jews.

I could not encourage people enough to read this graphic novel. It is the single most moving piece of literature that I have read this year, and I have already picked up volume 2. Maus conveys the Holocaust through a complex lens of humanity that I found lacking in the history books I read in school. I definitely came away with a different perspective on the second World War - an even deeper sense of empathy than ever before.

Content Warnings

rsngphoenix's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

3.75

Content Warnings

More...