Maus 1 & 2

Title: Maus 1 and 2
Author: Art Spiegelman
ISBN: B001G50SCS

Plot Summary: Art Spiegelman, a professional cartoonist, decides to record his aging father, Vladek's, stories about surviving the Holocaust. He intersperses his father's stories with scenes from the present of how his father is today, and Art's relationship with him. Throughout the book, the characters are anthropomorphized by nationality and ethnicity: Jewish characters are portrayed as mice; Germans as cats; Americans as dogs, and so forth. Although Vladek's stories "end" with his escape and survival, the fallout from the trauma he and his wife suffered reverberates long after they leave Auschwitz.


Critical Evaluation: This book gives insight not only into what it is like to survive a period of mass genocide, but also what it is like to grow up as the child of Holocaust survivors. The parts of the book dealing with the present, and consequently with Art's own neuroses, are less interesting than Vladek's stories, but provide a necessary framework for how the story came to be told. Although this book is not perfect, it tells a vitally important story from a fresh perspective.
Reader's Annotation: Art's father survived the Holocaust, and Art wants to tell his story. But in doing so he must also examine his own relationship with his father, and how events that happened before he was born shape who his father is today.

About the Author: Art Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1948, and grew up in Queens, New York, where he attended the High School of Art and Design. He subsequently dropped out of Harpur College and became active in the underground comics movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He launched RAW, an underground comics magazine, with his wife, Francoise Mouly, in 1980; it was in this magazine that Maus was first serialized. The anthologized version of the Maus story was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. In addition to his work in underground comics, Spiegelman has also written magazine articles, published cartoons and other artwork for magazines, and published several anthologies of children's cartoons. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and their children, Nadja and Dashiell.

Genre: Non-fiction, Graphic Novel

Curriculum Ties: European History

Booktalking Ideas:

Hook: In 1969, Anja Spiegelman committed suicide and left no note. Why?
Approach: Character and plot-based.
Notes for Booktalk: Discuss Anja's hospitalization for depression prior to the Holocaust. Discuss other possible factors in her suicide. She lost her first son, Richieu, when his aunt, Tosha, decided he and her own children would be better off dead than in a concentration camp. She then went on to survive Auschwitz, move to two new countries (Sweden, then the United States), and saw her second son, Arthur, hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. Make a list or brainstorm cloud of the different forms of depression Anja experiences: post-partum, survivor's guilt, etc.

Hook: Vladek hates paying for anything unless he absolutely has to, is always looking for the lowest price, and doesn't like to throw anything out. Not all Holocaust survivors are like this - why him?
Approach: Character-based.
Notes for Booktalk: Discuss Vladek's path to survival, the things he did and choices he made that saved him. Of all the things he saved, he burned Anja's diaries after she died, because the memories were too painful. Why save other, worthless items and destroy these? Impact his choices have had on his relationships: his second wife, his son, his neighbors.

Reading Level/Interest Age: Adult/high school

Challenge Issues: Graphic violence, offensive language, sexual content, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group. In addition to dealing with the Holocaust and its horrors, the book explores other "adult" issues: mental illness, suicide, religious persecution, and even pre-marital sex. I would understand if individual parents felt their child was not ready to deal with the horrors inherent in any book discussing the Holocaust. However, if they objected on any other grounds - Vladek sleeps with a girl and doesn't marry her, Art uses offensive language, the main characters are not Christian - I would point out that the story the book tells is absolutely essential, and that these elements paint a fuller picture of who the characters are as people.

Why I Chose This Book: This was one of the first graphic novels I read, and it still resonates with me. It tells a moving and vitally important story, and does so in a fresh and innovative format. For a high schooler learning about World War II, this book would be an excellent supplement, explaining what happened in Europe during the war in an accessible and engaging fashion.