I - First published August 12, 1986
Literary awards: Pulitzer Prize for Letters 1992
II - First published January 1, 1991
Literary awards: Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction 1992
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Maus, often published as Maus: A Survivor's Tale, is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, serialized from 1980 to 1991. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor.
In the frame-tale timeline in the narrative present that begins in 1978 in New York City, Spiegelman talks with his father Vladek about his Holocaust experiences, gathering material and information for the Maus project he is preparing. In the narrative past, Spiegelman depicts these experiences, from the years leading up to World War II to his parents' liberation from the Nazi concentration camps. Much of the story revolves around Spiegelman's troubled relationship with his father and the absence of his mother, who died by suicide when Spiegelman was 20. (Source: wikipedia.com)
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This is a review for both part I and part II, which really need to be read together for the best flow and impact.
I am not generally a reader of graphic novels, yet have heard so much about this one, I had to make an exception. Also, it's banned *and* had a pulitzer prize win.
Now I almost feel bad to give it only 3 stars. Part of me wonders if I've missed something important - I mean more important than the amazing story of surviving the holocaust. It is well done, kept me interested, I needed to finish. It was real, it was devastating. Yet it lacked something for me, and I'm not sure what.
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Why was this banned?
In 2022, the board of trustees for McMinn County Schools in east Tennessee voted unanimously to remove Maus from the curriculum over concerns including profanity, violence, and nudity. The decision led to a backlash and attracted attention the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day, and was covered by media in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Spiegelman called the decision baffling, "Orwellian", and "daffily myopic". (Source: wikipedia.com)
My thoughts:
Profanity - barely. There are several racial slurs.
Violence - it's the Holocaust. There is violence depicted, including a German officer smashing a child's head against a brick wall while holding the child's legs, showing black and white blood spatter on the wall. Horrible violence against Jews and others is also described in some detail. Quite necessary to be realistic. There is also a black and white pool of blood in the bathroom where his mother killed herself.
Nudity - barely. There is a drawing of his mother in the bathtub after killing herself and you can see the tops of her bare breasts, including the nipples. There are a few depictions of bare butts.
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Further exploration found on Teaching Books website:
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