Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Volume 2 - And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

It is the story of Vladek Speigelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler''s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father''s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity. Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek''s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author''s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century''s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.

The above blurb is actually from the Complete Maus. I still couldn't find a decent description online, so this covers both book one and book two.

So, this is the second part of the story of Art's fathers' time in Nazi-occupied Germany. I finished the first part and went right into the second because I wanted to know how everything played out. Art's father had a lot of close calls, but he was alive to tell the story, and we know that Art's mother committed suicide in 1968, but I still wanted to know what went on. There were moments where my mind would wander and I would forget that they both had to have lived, but it didn't mean that the story was not captivating know the outcome. I know that my grandfather was in World War Two. When he came home, he never spoke of the war again. A few years before he died, though, I decided to break the silence and see if he would tell me just a few things about his experiences. That was the one and only time my father spoke about what he went through during World War Two, and I wish I had been older so that I would have thought to bring along a tape recorder. I wish I had as detailed an account as Art did.

A few people have been mentioning how they were not sure about this book because it was a graphic novel. So, I think I will give my opinion on that. I don't read a lot of graphic novels. I find that they are too short and I read them way too fast, so I try to stick to novels. I have read a few comics here and there over the years, but I largely stay clear of them unless they are not something I have to pay for. Maus is a book I have been hearing a lot about, though, so when I had gift cards for Christmas I decided to buy them and see what all the hype was about. It was hard to imagine what I was going to think about a book that portrays Jews as mice and Nazis as cats, but I read the two books, and it never really bothered me. Actually I was talking about them afterwards and it just made sense to me. It didn't dull the reality of what went on. I still felt terrible about what happened.... Maybe even moreso. For example, I watched a movie last night where countless humans died, and it was just a movie, but when I thought a wolf had been killed I felt terrible. I know, sounds terrible, but maybe by making the characters in this book animals instead of humans, he actually made a stronger point than if they had been human characters...

Whatever the idea, this was a good book. I am glad that I finally took the chance to read it. I might never become the biggest graphic novel reader on the planet, but there are some like these that really should be read. They cover important aspects of history, and that is something that we should never forget.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Volume 1 - My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

I cannot find a decent synopsis of this online, so instead of searching forever, I will just have to do it myself. Maus is a graphic novel duology that I have been hearing a lot about the last few years, but never got around to buying. This last year, with all the graphic novel and other challenges, it seems to have become much more popular. I finally decided to buy the two books with the gift cards that I received for Christmas, and I am glad that I did! This is the story about a son, who is a cartoonist, and his father, who is a survivor of Hitler's Germany. Art decides to tell his father's story in comic book form while his father is still around to tell it. His mother committed suicide, so he never had the chance to hear her part of the story, and he doesn't want to make the same mistake with his father. Maus is his father's world during the years of Hitler occupied Germany and the Holocaust. I think books on these subjects are so important because hopefully with education, we will not make the same mistakes as our predecessors.

I have to admit, even though I had heard great things about this book, and it won the Pulitizer prize, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. It is tackling a very series subject, and instead of using people, he uses mice, pigs, and a few cats to play the parts. I wasn't sure if the story would have the same strength. I don't read a lot of graphic novels in the first place, so I wasn't really sure what to expect on many levels. The author is trying to come to terms with his father and the horrible things that his father had to go through during the Second World War. Everytime I read these accounts I am left horrified. It doesn't matter how often I hear it or how many books I read, this was a horrible thing! I will never understand it, either, and I hope to never know what it was it like for these people, because I believe the only way we will really know is to go through it ourselves.

Art does a fantastic job. This is a book that so many people should take the time to read! I was glued to the page, but I was also horrified at what I was reading. Life was hard for Art's family, as it was for so many others. To live through that and still manage to keep on going after the war was over is phenomenal. The strength it takes to overcome such obstacles, I only hope I am half as strong. While it is a serious subject matter, there is also humour written in. Art doesn't get along with his father so well, and instead of just talking about the past, he also writes about what it was like to visit his father while these interviews were taking place. His father lived through the worst, and as a result is rather hard to deal with. He has gone to the extreme following the events he lived through, so he is not exactly the easiest person in the world to live with (as his current wife says throughout).

While I read this, I found moments to laugh, but there are also many moments to cry. The Holocaust was a part of history that we should all be ashamed of. I sometimes wonder, though, if we have truly learned anything from it. The death was unbelievable. The families turn apart. The brutality is just mind-blowing. And, then, for there to be people living today that think it didn't happen, that it was all made up! That just goes against everything I have ever believed in! I don't think it is possible to make up something so horrible! Everyone should read Maus. It easily just made my top... whatever the number ends up being... for 2009!