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It is not a story of the Holocaust but instead a son's attempt to understand a father he has never gotten along with and to come to terms with his own mother's suicide. I first read Maus when I was in the fourth grade and though I believe the age of 10 is early for a story so graphic and difficult to comprehend even for adults my early memories of the book have allowed me to grow to possess a greater appreciation of the many layers here which have become apparent each time I have read it as i have gotten older. The Holocaust story is secondary, a tale told by Spiegelman's very racist father and the illustrations are the author's attempt to see through the man's eyes rather than his own. Many reviewers here comment on the racist tendencies of the book, that the illustration of different races as different animals enforces stereotypes and forgets the sufferings of others under the Nazi regime. These readers have obviously missed the entire point of this book. This book does only tell the story of Jews in Poland but that is all it is meant to tell: it would make no sense for Spiegelman to go off on tangents about all the other horrors of the Holocaust when the story he is telling is that of his parents. This is not an attempt to define the Holocaust itself but instead one person's story within it.
I would have mistaken this book for brand new. I am very pleased with the seller, and I will definitely look to them to buy again.
I never really liked comics, but this one is good. Its a nonfiction comic strip. Very good drawings from one of the survivors of the Holocaust. Let it not be forgotten.
The story itself is simply told. I personally pity, and dislike the father very much. It's told from one perspective, the father of the author. But I think the complicated love/hate relationship between the author and his father that is interspersed throughout out the book gives it another dimension and depth to contemplate. Someone so stuck in the past, carrying his pain instead of letting go and moving on. It's such a sad contrast between the adaptable, resourceful young man he was during the Nazi invasion, compared to the rigid old man he is now.The artwork is not something i typically like, but there's enough to admire; his clever use of textures and silhouettes in a black&white only comic, his composition and structure that is consistent in both books.I bought this to get educated on one of the most influential American comics, but I wouldn't have bought it for my own enjoyment.
I've bought this book a few times. The quality of the actual physical book is pleasing.
It is two stories in one: the story of the experience of surviving the camps and the long-term effects of having survived. This is one of the most important books you must read about the Holocaust.
These graphic novels were written in smaller books many years apart and it's amazing to read them all together. The Jews are mice, the Nazis are cats, the Poles are pigs, the Americans are dogs, the French are frogs.
The relationships formed were essential to immediate survival but the trauma of that intensity made the future incredibly difficult for the Spiegelmans and their son. The pages are thick so you don't see any overlapping images through the other pages.
I keep giving it to people to read and they don't give it back so I have to buy it again.
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