Saturday, May 2, 2009

Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

Whether you like graphic novels or never considered reading one, this book is a must! Maus tells the true story of Art Spiegelman’s parents’ survival of Hitler’s persecution of European Jews. Spiegelman tells not only the tale of his parent’s survival but of Art’s own coming to terms with his family history. In this Holocaust tale, the characters are depicted as animals: Jews are mice, Germans are cats, French are frogs, Americans are dogs, and Poles are pigs. Art’s father, Vladek enlists in the Polish Army when war breaks out. However, he is Jewish, and when Germany conquers Poland, he and his wife, Anna, are forced to move into a Jewish ghetto. When they learn what will happen to them if they are sent to a Nazi concentration camp, they go into hiding.

This novel does not have a happy ending… yet. It is the first of two graphic novels chronicling Art’s family as they struggle to survive the Holocaust. This graphic novel is sometimes considered an adult novel and sometimes a young adult. The story is harrowing and disturbing, even more so because it is told in pictures. Because everything is illustrated, it does not let your imagination soften the experiences of the Jews during the Nazi regime and the Final Solution. It is very "in your face."

Graphic Novel; ISBN 978-0394747231; New York: Pantheon Books, 1986

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