Maus
a Survivors Tale: My Father Bleeds History
by Art Spiegelman
"Maus is a book that cannot be put down, truly, even to sleep. When
two of the mice speak of love, you are moved, when they suffer, you weep.
Slowly through this little tale comprised of suffering, humor and life's
daily trials, you are captivated by the language of an old Eastern European
family, and drawn into the gentle and mesmerizing rhythm, and when you
finish Maus, you are unhappy to have left that magical world." Umberto
Eco.
Some historical events simply beggar any attempt at description--the
Holocaust is one of these. Therefore, as it recedes and the people able
to bear witness die, it becomes more and more essential that novel, vigorous
methods are used to describe the indescribable. Examined in these terms,
Art Spiegelman's Maus is a tremendous achievement, from a historical perspective
as well as an artistic one.
Spiegelman, a stalwart of the underground comics scene of the 1960s
and '70s, interviewed his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor living outside
New York City, about his experiences. The artist then deftly translated
that story into a graphic novel. By portraying a true story of the Holocaust
in comic form--the Jews are mice, the Germans cats, the Poles pigs, the
French frogs, and the Americans dogs--Spiegelman compels the reader to
imagine the action, to fill in the blanks that are so often shied away
from. Reading Maus, you are forced to examine the Holocaust anew.
This is neither easy nor pleasant. However, Vladek Spiegelman and his
wife Anna are resourceful heroes, and enough acts of kindness and decency
appear in the tale to spur the reader onward (we also know that the protagonists
survive, else reading would be too painful). This first volume introduces
Vladek as a happy young man on the make in pre-war Poland. With outside
events growing ever more ominous, we watch his marriage to Anna, his enlistment
in the Polish army after the outbreak of hostilities, his and Anna's life
in the ghetto, and then their flight into hiding as the Final Solution
is put into effect. The ending is stark and terrible, but the worst is
yet to come--in the second volume of this Pulitzer Prize-winning set. --Michael
Gerber - Amazon.com
Paperback from Pantheon Books
1986 |
