Just about everyone I know has heard of Maus. After all, Art Spiegelman's biographical depiction of his father's experiences in the holocaust did win him a Pulitzer and an Eisner among a host of other awards and nominations. For those of you who haven't actually read it, here's the story in brief.
Art begins the story with a visit to his father, Vladek, and expresses an interest in drawing the story of his and Anja's (Art's mother) experiences in the holocaust. Vladek agrees and begins his tale with how, as a poor young man, he left his longtime girlfriend to marry Anja because of the dowry and the family money. With the support of his new family, Vladek starts his own business and is quite successful. The invasion of Poland by Germany interrupts this dream life and the rest is, literally, history i.e., oppression-disappearances-killings-holocaust-transportation by train-concentration camps-gas chambers-escape etc.
On one hand, it's a first-person account of surviving hardships through cunning and ingenuity, and of betrayal by friends & neighbors. On the other, it's about how experiences shape lives and engrain traits in us. Some readers may find me treating it very curtly, but that's because I found Maus quite disappointing. Surprised? Let me explain.
Here's what I like. Spiegelman's writing is excellent, as is his characterization. His neurotic father's miserly ways, which are a hangover from the holocaust, are well portrayed in everyday life. The representation of people as anthropomorphic animals is creatively used. For instance, while Jews are mice and Germans are cats, the child of a Jew and a German is a mouse with cat stripes. And the portrayal of his (often tumultuous) relationship with his father is honest. That's about everything I liked about the book.
Here's what I didn't like. There's nothing new about it - not a point-of-view, not an opinion… nothing. If you've seen any of the numerous movies like 'Schindler's List' or 'Escape from Sorbibor', Maus doesn't add anything to it. It's simply an engaging story from an "adventure" stand-point and the fact that it's not fiction helps build it up even more.
Opinions aside though, it's worth a read.
I'm sure most readers will have different views… so let's hear them.
