MAUS review

(Reviewed by Melody Werner)
Maus is a biographical frame story graphic novel series by Art Spiegelman, published by Pantheon Books in 1986 and 1991 (otherwise syndicated as an independent comic). It is nonfiction through and through--it documents the story of Art's father, Vladek Spiegelman, who survived the Holocaust and Auschwitz (though he passed away while Maus was still being published). Considered by many to be one of the greatest comics of all time, and one of the comics which revitalized the struggling industry during the 80's, along with The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. It was met with universal acclaim, and is one of the few graphic novels to have amassed such academic interest. It's also seen as one of the greatest Holocaust stories ever, and is the only comic ever to have won a Pulitzer. Until recently, I had never read Maus myself, though I had heard much of it. I was finally able to get both books through my library. Having read it... damn, if you haven't read Maus yet, I suggest you stop reading this now and go do so ASAP. I think this might be the best comic I've ever read.

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The art is possibly the biggest thing which someone could conceivably get hung up on. Not everyone likes monochrome black and white, and as archaic as it may look to some, I think it REALLY works for this. There are some panels where... ugh, it's just incredibly unsettling to look at, which is the point. This is a comic which actually, genuinely made me sick to my stomach at one point, and that's no hyperbole. Some may be get up in arms over the fact that each race is presented as a different species (Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Poles are pigs, French are frogs, and Americans are dogs), and consider it racist--however, I would argue adamantly that that is patently false. From what I understood while reading, this was done so as to parody Hitler's belief that Jews, and other races, were subhuman and completely separate species from Germans. It also highlights the idiocy of racism--just about every ethnicity looks the same when penned in black and white, and the only way Spiegelman was able to highlight which race each person in this story is was to present everyone as animals. Also, this hearkens back to things like Animal Farm, which used anthropomorphism to great effect. Maus, as well as Art Spiegelman, does not deserve such accusations in my honest opinion. As far as sequential reading flow, Maus is extremely smooth reading. The print copy of Maus book 1 I read (which is from the 90's as far as I can tell) was, aside from its fairly poor condition, still not, y'know, a very nicely printed book even from the outset. I would recommend getting a newer edition if you're going to read it physically. Book 2 was pretty much perfect in this respect, however.

As a biography, one cannot really critique such a book for its narrative per se; instead, you've gotta focus on how well the true story is told--is it effective in getting the point across, is it interesting, etc.. Maus is masterfully told. As a frame story told from Art's perspective, you really get an interesting perspective. You see how the Holocaust affected Vladek, how it really changed him, and how "ordinary" people saw him. For example, he was money-grubbing and a hoarder--because when he was trying to survive camps like Auschwitz, he had to conserve everything he had just to stay alive and keep his wife from getting killed. And for the rest of his life, he never wanted to waste anything because of it. Half a box of cereal which nobody was going to eat? He would argue with the shop owner to return it. No one ever talks about or documents things like this, how the Holocaust fucked with some people's brains. It's an absorbingly honest and horrific story, which is a bit self-reflective, especially in the second book.

As I mentioned in the part where I talked about the artwork, there are moments in Maus which are just horrific--scarier to me than any horror movie or comic I've ever seen. Because this shit was real, this was coming from someone who lived through it. And nobody was spared. The only thing I can think of which is even comparable to Maus in terms of articulating the Holocaust (though I have not read into Anne Frank nearly enough yet admittedly), would be The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and even that falls so very short of Maus. Because this is just so honest, so un-sensationalist... and it will keep your eyes glued from start to finish. It's fascinating, and a story which you need to read. It's not some cheap tearjerker, and the way it breaks things down is so insightful. And while it's no tearjerker, I know for damn sure that it both made me want to give the people who were in this living Hell a hug... and then crawl into a corner, because humanity is so fucked.

At first, when I started reading Maus, I thought that the dialogue was in extremely poor English. That is, until I realized that everything which was in broken English was something which Vladek was saying. I'm fairly certain that this was done to show that Vladek never really spoke a very articulate English. As I keep saying, Maus is so painstakingly accurate. But I was conflicted as to whether I agreed with this in principle--on one hand, it makes it harder to read (and thus can end up turning people off of it) and understand what Vladek is saying, but on the other, you eventually do get used to it and it's being accurate to how Vladek talked. I think you could go either way on it, though eventually I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't really take away from or add much to reading this necessary piece of literature.

Perhaps I'm "over-hyping" it, but right now I genuinely do feel that Maus is the best thing I've ever read. I applaud Spiegelman for his honesty and crafting such a thought-provoking comic. Maus will change how you think of the Holocaust. And no, I don't mean that you'll think it wasn't an atrocity (it obviously was) or that it never happened (if you seriously think that, go fuck off). I mean that it will make you rethink the common understanding that it was just a horrible act committed against the Jewish people, which lasted between 1933 and 1945. No, no, no. After reading this book, you will understand that no matter if you were a man, a woman, wealthy, poor, old, middle-aged, or a baby, if you were targeted at this time; it didn't matter what your status, your age, or your gender was. Contrary to the thoughts of Ben Carson and his ilk, it didn't matter if you tried to fight back, or if you tried to play buddy-buddy with Nazis, or if you just submitted yourself. No matter what, there was no escape. Even if you survived. Maus is a revolutionary book, and if there was ever a book which needed to become mandatory reading material in schools, this is it. You will learn way more about the Holocaust in Maus than you ever would with a textbook that is extremely vague. Unsurprisingly, Maus gets a 10/10 from me.

Masterpiece

Summary:
Read. It.

(originally posted: 11/15/2017)

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