Maus I & Maus II ~ Art Spiegelman

A course on Popular Culture taught me that graphic novels need not be about otherworldly super-heroes with abandonment and anger management issues. My introduction was Persepolis a brilliant tale of growing up in Iran during the revolution by Marjane Satrapi. I've since branched out having discovered an entire sub-group of World War II offerings.

Art Spielgelman's two part work about his parents and their lives as Jews in Hitler's Europe and its impact during and beyond the war reveals that struggles did not end when Hitler took his life and the gates of work and concentration camps were flown open by Allied troops. Nor was life made easy for the interred's offspring in the New World.



Spielgelman eventually convinces his father who is reluctant to share his experiences during World War II. This reluctance is evident throughout the story but he manages to get through it. Born in Poland, with wind of what was to come, the author's father and his wife make their way to Czechoslovakia but were betrayed be the very people who offered to help them across the border. This incident alone prevents any ability to trust in others, and serves as the basis for all decisions Spiegelman's father makes from then on.

While the story will have a familiar ring as others such as Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi, it is one generation removed and presented in a medium perhaps approachable to those who would not normally be comfortable with the heaviness of poetry and prose. For this achievement alone, the work is invaluable.

Review originally appeared on the now defunct Paternoster Row Legacy Blog