Title: Maus
Author: Art Spiegelman
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Format: Paperback
Pages: 295
Reason Read: Book Club
Rating:

My Thoughts

MAUS is the first graphic novel I’ve ever read. I wanted to like it more than I did. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I actually learned a few things about what happened in the concentration camps. I thought I had heard / learned most of what happened, but there were some things I didn’t know.

Spiegelman drew the characters in animal form. The Jews were depicted as mice, non-Jewish Poles were pigs, Americans were dogs, and the Nazis were cats. I’m a cat lover and I hate that cats are always vilified in cartoons and movies. (For once, I’d like to read a book or see a cartoon / movie where rats are the bad guys and cats are the good guys.)

I tried to pay attention to the pictures, but I wanted to read the words. I got caught up in them. I know I looked at the pictures, but I didn’t get lost in them. I didn’t spend time looking at the details. They weren’t what interested me. Looking at the pictures and then reading the words felt very disjointed. If I could read the words, then go back and look at the pictures, it might have worked better for me.

It felt like a lot of filler / description was missing. When I read, I love getting to know the characters by getting inside their heads. I wanted to know why Vladek felt the way he did. I wanted to know how we was feeling at any given moment. I didn’t just want to rely on the outside manifestation of his feelings (via the picture) because pictures can only tell you so much. I needed more depth to the story.

I liked the second volume better than the first because it made me feel more. The depth that I felt I was missing in the first volume wasn’t as big of a deal in second. I saw / read enough of how horrible Auschwitz was that I didn’t need more insight from the characters’ minds.

It’s amazing to me how Vladek and Anya survived Auschwitz. It was really only because of luck and cunning on Vladek’s part. It’s not like the strong survived and the weak didn’t. It’s more that Vladek was in the right place at the right time, met the right people, and could negotiate / barter like the best of them.

I’m really glad I took the time to read both volumes. They’re both very powerful biographies. They made me appreciate what the Jews went through during the Holocaust.