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A memoir of Vladek Spiegleman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and about his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father, his story, and history. Cartoon format portrays Jews as mice, Nazis as cats. Using a unique comic-strip-as-graphic-art format, the story of Vladek Spiegelman's passage through the Nazi Holocaust is told in his own words. Acclaimed as a "quiet triumph" and a "brutally moving work of art," the first volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus introduced readers show more to Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist trying to come to terms with his father, his father's terrifying story, and History itself. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), succeeds perfectly in shocking us out of any lingering sense of familiarity with the events described, approaching, as it does, the unspeakable through the diminutive. As the New York Times Book Review commented," [it is] a remarkable feat of documentary detail and novelistic vividness...an unfolding literary event." This long-awaited sequel, subtitled And Here My Troubles Began, moves us from the barracks of Auschwitz to the bungalows of the Catskills. Genuinely tragic and comic by turns, it attains a complexity of theme and a precision of thought new to comics and rare in any medium. Maus ties together two powerful stories: Vladek's harrowing tale of survival against all odds, delineating the paradox of daily life in the death camps, and the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Vladek's troubled remarriage, minor arguments between father and son, and life's everyday disappointments are all set against a backdrop of history too large to pacify. At every level this is the ultimate survivor's tale -- and that too of the children who somehow survive even the survivors. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
SqueakyChu This is only for those not too raw after reading Maus and its sequel. I must warn you that Palestine does not paint a pretty picture of Jews or Israel, but Joe Sacco does an amazing job of revealing the story of a people through the use of graphic novel. He uses this genre, as does Art Spiegelman, to reveal heartfelt pain.
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Member Reviews
Rating: Powerfully Moving
Maus is the story of the author / graphic artist and his fraught relationship with his elderly father. It is also the story of his father’s experience growing up in Poland and surviving the horrors of the holocaust.
The reader experiences the harrowing and miraculous life of Art’s father through powerful imagery and metaphor, with the Jews drawn as mice and the Nazis as cats.
It’s a story of history that cannot and should never be forgotten, ESPECIALLY in today’s global political landscape. Everyone should make time to pick up this extremely powerful and moving story so that we may learn from the past and remind ourselves to condemn the widespread hate, racism, and bigotry that led to the deaths of show more millions of innocent people. We cannot let that happen again, but we are seeing the horrors that letting those sentiments fester in modern society can produce.
It’s not an easy read, and there are parts I definitely recommend reading with an adult beverage in hand. But it is a story about the miracle of human ingenuity and the power of hope in the face of unthinkable evil.
Go pick up a copy and read it for yourself.
Part 2 of 2 show less
Maus is the story of the author / graphic artist and his fraught relationship with his elderly father. It is also the story of his father’s experience growing up in Poland and surviving the horrors of the holocaust.
The reader experiences the harrowing and miraculous life of Art’s father through powerful imagery and metaphor, with the Jews drawn as mice and the Nazis as cats.
It’s a story of history that cannot and should never be forgotten, ESPECIALLY in today’s global political landscape. Everyone should make time to pick up this extremely powerful and moving story so that we may learn from the past and remind ourselves to condemn the widespread hate, racism, and bigotry that led to the deaths of show more millions of innocent people. We cannot let that happen again, but we are seeing the horrors that letting those sentiments fester in modern society can produce.
It’s not an easy read, and there are parts I definitely recommend reading with an adult beverage in hand. But it is a story about the miracle of human ingenuity and the power of hope in the face of unthinkable evil.
Go pick up a copy and read it for yourself.
Part 2 of 2 show less
"¡Cuántos libros se han escrito sobre el Holocausto!¿Para qué? La gente no cambio...Quizá necesite otro Holocausto más grande"
Esta segunda parte es más cruda y conmovedora, tenemos a Vladek en Auschwitz donde sufre toda clase de riesgos pero al mismo tiempo tiene la suerte de su lado lo que le permite sobrevivir.
No me adentrare mucho en todas las cosas que sufrió Vladek porque mis palabras denigrarían esta historia, pero sólo diré que la manera en que esta contada y las imágenes que se muestran hacen que la historia no sólo sea más impactante sino increíblemente difícil de no imaginar...nos encontramos en un momento donde la familia se traiciona cuando no hay dinero, donde ser buen samaritano es algo que ha dejado de show more existir y donde todo segundo es el pánico en sí mismo.
"-Todo lo que paso Vladek. Es un milagro que haya sobrevivido.
-Ajá, pero en ciertos aspectos no sobrevivió."
Hay dos cosas que se me hicieron muy importantes la primera es la sensación que te deja el final, los nazis no son los únicos que se beneficiaron de la purga judía, los polacos (que son quienes se encuentran aquí, aunque es muy probable que lo mismo sucediera en otras partes de Europa y Asia) tomaron todo lo que el nacionalismo les ofreció y, al finalizar el régimen, no estaban dispuestos a soltarlotan poco dispuestos que incluso mataban a los judíos que regresaban por sus pertenencias con tal de quedárselas . El segundo aspecto es que, como humanos, pareciera que siempre tenemos necesidad de sentirnos superiores a alguien más, sin importar que nosotros mismos hayamos sido denigrados en el libro I hay vestigios de que Vladek tiene prejuicios raciales, y en este libro queda muy claro que, efectivamente, lo es ,supongo que no queda más que aceptar que es parte de nuestra "esencia humana".
Para finalizar diré una opinión muy personal acerca de la guerra el régimen nazi es la prueba de que la ambición de la mayoría, tener alguien a quien culpar y alguien con la suficiente labia para llevarte a aceptar todas esas situaciones son una combinación temible. Gran parte de Europa y Asia estaba dispuesta a tomar las medidas de Hitler sí eso les permitiría ganar poder y dinero, independientemente de que este "progreso" estuviera manchado de sangre ¿Cuantas personas habrán terminado sus días con la satisfacción de no haber matado a nadie y culpando únicamente a los dirigentes del partido? show less
Esta segunda parte es más cruda y conmovedora, tenemos a Vladek en Auschwitz donde sufre toda clase de riesgos pero al mismo tiempo tiene la suerte de su lado lo que le permite sobrevivir.
No me adentrare mucho en todas las cosas que sufrió Vladek porque mis palabras denigrarían esta historia, pero sólo diré que la manera en que esta contada y las imágenes que se muestran hacen que la historia no sólo sea más impactante sino increíblemente difícil de no imaginar...nos encontramos en un momento donde la familia se traiciona cuando no hay dinero, donde ser buen samaritano es algo que ha dejado de show more existir y donde todo segundo es el pánico en sí mismo.
"-Todo lo que paso Vladek. Es un milagro que haya sobrevivido.
-Ajá, pero en ciertos aspectos no sobrevivió."
Hay dos cosas que se me hicieron muy importantes la primera es la sensación que te deja el final, los nazis no son los únicos que se beneficiaron de la purga judía, los polacos (que son quienes se encuentran aquí, aunque es muy probable que lo mismo sucediera en otras partes de Europa y Asia) tomaron todo lo que el nacionalismo les ofreció y, al finalizar el régimen, no estaban dispuestos a soltarlo
Para finalizar diré una opinión muy personal acerca de la guerra
Together with the much-acclaimed first volume of Spiegelman's Maus (1987—not reviewed), this unusual Holocaust tale will forever alter the way serious readers think of graphic narratives (i.e., comic books). For his unforgettable combination of words and pictures, Spiegelman draws from high and low culture, and blends autobiography with the story of his father's survival of the concentration camps. In funny-book fashion, the all-too-real characters here have the heads of animals—the Jews are mice, the Nazis are rats, and the Poles are pigs—a stark Orwellian metaphor for dehumanized relations during WW II. Much of Spiegelman's narrative concerns his own struggle to coax his difficult father into remembering a past he'd rather show more forget. What emerges in father Vladek's tale is a study in survival; he makes it through by luck, randomness, and cleverness. Physically strong, he bluffs his way through the camps as a tinsmith and a shoemaker, and also exploits his ability with languages. Every day in Auschwitz, and later in Dachau, demands new bribes and masterly bartering. All of this helps explain Vladek's art of survival in the present: his cheap, miserly behavior; his disappointment over Spiegelman's marriage to a non-Jew; his constant criticism of his own second wife and his son; and even his inexcusable racism. Haunted by the brother who died in the camps, Spiegelman (born in postwar Sweden) also mourns his mother, who survived only to commit suicide in the late 60's. Within the time span of the writing of Maus (1978-91), Vladek died, and Spiegelman now must sort out his complex feelings as he reflects on the success of the first volume—a success built on the tragedy of the Holocaust. With all his doubts, Spiegelman pushes on, realizing that his book deserves a place in the ongoing struggle between memory and forgetting. Full of hard-earned humor and pathos, Maus (I and II) takes your breath away with its stunning visual style, reminding us that while we can never forget the Holocaust, we may need new ways to remember. show less
Together with the much-acclaimed first volume of Spiegelman's Maus (1987—not reviewed), this unusual Holocaust tale will forever alter the way serious readers think of graphic narratives (i.e., comic books). For his unforgettable combination of words and pictures, Spiegelman draws from high and low culture, and blends autobiography with the story of his father's survival of the concentration camps. In funny-book fashion, the all-too-real characters here have the heads of animals—the Jews are mice, the Nazis are rats, and the Poles are pigs—a stark Orwellian metaphor for dehumanized relations during WW II. Much of Spiegelman's narrative concerns his own struggle to coax his difficult father into remembering a past he'd rather show more forget. What emerges in father Vladek's tale is a study in survival; he makes it through by luck, randomness, and cleverness. Physically strong, he bluffs his way through the camps as a tinsmith and a shoemaker, and also exploits his ability with languages. Every day in Auschwitz, and later in Dachau, demands new bribes and masterly bartering. All of this helps explain Vladek's art of survival in the present: his cheap, miserly behavior; his disappointment over Spiegelman's marriage to a non-Jew; his constant criticism of his own second wife and his son; and even his inexcusable racism. Haunted by the brother who died in the camps, Spiegelman (born in postwar Sweden) also mourns his mother, who survived only to commit suicide in the late 60's. Within the time span of the writing of Maus (1978-91), Vladek died, and Spiegelman now must sort out his complex feelings as he reflects on the success of the first volume—a success built on the tragedy of the Holocaust. With all his doubts, Spiegelman pushes on, realizing that his book deserves a place in the ongoing struggle between memory and forgetting. Full of hard-earned humor and pathos, Maus (I and II) takes your breath away with its stunning visual style, reminding us that while we can never forget the Holocaust, we may need new ways to remember. show less
In this second half of Maus, Artie shares with us all of his reservations about what he is creating and what it costs him. It's little wonder, as the first volume was only the preliminaries of the story. Here is where he had to detail the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau and all of its inner workings. He depicts his father as telling about it matter-of-factly, in an almost off-hand and distracted manner. The lasting effects on his father show through in other ways; his high-strung reactions to the most minor wastefulness, and his ingrained miserliness. Artie comments that not all survivors came out like that, but perhaps those were the very traits that helped his father survive and could consequently never be shaken off or balanced.
There show more are elements in this story that I hadn't heard in other survivor tellings, equaling anything else for their horror. I was still struck with the appropriate horror impression, but I had to pause and consider them in the abstract. In this respect the graphic novel format put too much distance between me and what I was reading, but that is probably just me. One thing I do think missing from Maus is the context. These father-son discussions are between two Jews who don't need to explain the Holocaust to one another, but a non-Jewish reader can't get the full background from it of Hitler's pogrom and 'final solution'. It misses addressing the "why". On the other hand ... is there actually any good answer to that question? show less
There show more are elements in this story that I hadn't heard in other survivor tellings, equaling anything else for their horror. I was still struck with the appropriate horror impression, but I had to pause and consider them in the abstract. In this respect the graphic novel format put too much distance between me and what I was reading, but that is probably just me. One thing I do think missing from Maus is the context. These father-son discussions are between two Jews who don't need to explain the Holocaust to one another, but a non-Jewish reader can't get the full background from it of Hitler's pogrom and 'final solution'. It misses addressing the "why". On the other hand ... is there actually any good answer to that question? show less
I never contemplated ever reading a so-called graphic novel. I mean really—admit to reading a comic book at my age and with two university degrees in language and literature? After all, I'm an elitist snob who prefers printed, hardbound books, preferably in leather bindings. (Well, ok, I confess that there are a few books of comic strip collections lying around the house, but we don't talk about those.) But Maus: A Survivor's Tale is one massive exception.
First of all, Library of Congress cataloging data notwithstanding, Maus is a far, far cry from a comic book. There is nothing whatsoever comic in either the text or the illustrations. Of course, it is not a novel, either. I'd describe it as a lavishly illustrated biography of a World show more War II Holocaust survivor, enriched by a look at the interaction between the interviewer/author and his subject/father. Portraying the subjects of this biography as mice, cats, pigs, dogs, and elk (at least I think that's what the Swedes are) was a stroke of literary and artistic genius. The illustrations significantly reinforce the text and add positively to the impact of that text upon the reader.
As to the facts of the Holocaust, every action, every place, every event is described in numerous “serious” published histories. Art Spiegelman has invented or imagined nothing--Maus is an accurate historical account as related by a survivor of that history. The account is personal and immediate and grips the reader at both an intellectual and an emotional level. If one reads nothing else about the Nazis' “Final Solution,” one should read Maus. As a parent and a professional educator, I would place Maus in every high school classroom in the country. Come to think of it, I might just place it in every university library as well.
Maus has been published in two slim volumes, the first subtitled My Father Bleeds History and the second And Here My Troubles Began. Be sure to obtain them both, or find both consolidated into a single volume. Neither is complete by itself, but together they are a powerful combination. Begin your studies of the Holocaust with this duo and then follow up with a few “serious” histories or, if you've already read the historical accounts, refresh your knowledge with this fascinating, gripping, illustrated version.
Does the author have an “agenda” in creating these volumes? Of course he does. His agenda is to educate every generation that has followed those nearly incomprehensible events of World War II so that the utter horror and total despair that those events birthed will not die from human memory. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Fortunately and thankfully, authors such as Art Spiegelman have written and drawn historical accounts that are easily read and understood so that learning from history is intriguing and pleasurable and enticing. I can envision absolutely no excuse for not perusing Maus: A Survivor's Tale, both volumes I and II, by anyone willing to learn from history. show less
First of all, Library of Congress cataloging data notwithstanding, Maus is a far, far cry from a comic book. There is nothing whatsoever comic in either the text or the illustrations. Of course, it is not a novel, either. I'd describe it as a lavishly illustrated biography of a World show more War II Holocaust survivor, enriched by a look at the interaction between the interviewer/author and his subject/father. Portraying the subjects of this biography as mice, cats, pigs, dogs, and elk (at least I think that's what the Swedes are) was a stroke of literary and artistic genius. The illustrations significantly reinforce the text and add positively to the impact of that text upon the reader.
As to the facts of the Holocaust, every action, every place, every event is described in numerous “serious” published histories. Art Spiegelman has invented or imagined nothing--Maus is an accurate historical account as related by a survivor of that history. The account is personal and immediate and grips the reader at both an intellectual and an emotional level. If one reads nothing else about the Nazis' “Final Solution,” one should read Maus. As a parent and a professional educator, I would place Maus in every high school classroom in the country. Come to think of it, I might just place it in every university library as well.
Maus has been published in two slim volumes, the first subtitled My Father Bleeds History and the second And Here My Troubles Began. Be sure to obtain them both, or find both consolidated into a single volume. Neither is complete by itself, but together they are a powerful combination. Begin your studies of the Holocaust with this duo and then follow up with a few “serious” histories or, if you've already read the historical accounts, refresh your knowledge with this fascinating, gripping, illustrated version.
Does the author have an “agenda” in creating these volumes? Of course he does. His agenda is to educate every generation that has followed those nearly incomprehensible events of World War II so that the utter horror and total despair that those events birthed will not die from human memory. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Fortunately and thankfully, authors such as Art Spiegelman have written and drawn historical accounts that are easily read and understood so that learning from history is intriguing and pleasurable and enticing. I can envision absolutely no excuse for not perusing Maus: A Survivor's Tale, both volumes I and II, by anyone willing to learn from history. show less
With volume II, Maus switches from good to great. Whereas the first volume chronicles the time leading up to the death camps, the second volume focuses almost solely on the time Vladek and Anja spend in Auschwitz. Here, all the humanity they possess is stripped away from them, and Vladek needs to use every ounce of charm, skill, and luck he has to stay alive. The astounding thing about this book is how bad things get-- every time I thought it had to be almost over, things somehow managed to get worse. Which makes you feel especially awful when you remember that it's all real. The book is emotionally draining, yet it left me racing for the conclusion, and that makes the mixed-emotional ending all the more effective. A fantastic, show more harrowing book-- combined with the first, Maus is one of the best Holocaust narratives I've ever read. show less
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ThingScore 100
Perhaps no Holocaust narrative will ever contain the whole experience. But Art Spiegelman has found an original and authentic form to draw us closer to its bleak heart.
added by Shortride
By writing and drawing simply, directly and earnestly, Mr. Spiegelman is able to lend his father's journey into hell and back an immediacy and poignance... In recounting the tales of both the father and the son in "Maus" and now in "Maus II," Mr. Spiegelman has stretched the boundaries of the comic book form and in doing so has created one of the most powerful and original memoirs to come show more along in recent years. show less
added by Shortride
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Author Information
67+ Works 35,944 Members
Art Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden on February 15, 1948. He is the son of Polish Jews who survived imprisonment in Auschwitz. His family immigrated to the United States. He became a professional cartoonist at the age of 16. He studied art and philosophy at Harpur College. He became a creative consultant, designer, and writer for Topps show more Chewing Gum, Inc., where he created Wacky Packages, Garbage Pail Kids and other novelty items. The Complete Mr. Infinity was published in 1970 and won the Joel M. Cavior Award for Jewish Writing. In 1980, Spiegelman and his wife, Françoise Mouly founded the avant-garde comics magazine RAW. His best known work Maus: A Survivor's Tale, was published in 1986 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. His other works include Maus: A Survivor's Tale II, In the Shadow of No Towers, Breakdowns, Jack and the Box, Be a Nose, and The Ghosts of Ellis Island. MetaMaus won the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in the Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir category. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began
- Original title
- Maus - And Here My Troubles Began : A Survivor's Tale
- Alternate titles
- Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
- Original publication date
- 1991
- People/Characters
- Art Spiegelman; Françoise Spiegelman; Vladek Spiegelman; Mala Spiegelman; Anja Spiegelman
- Important places
- Catskill Mountains, New York, USA; Dachau concentration camp, Dachau, Bavaria, Germany; Rego Park, Queens, New York, New York, USA; Auschwitz concentration camp, Oświęcim, Lesser Poland, Poland; Sosnowiec, Silesia, Poland; Florida, USA (show all 8); New York, New York, USA; Stockholm, Sweden
- Important events
- World War II (1939 | 1945); Holocaust
- Epigraph
- Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed...Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom... (show all), cannot be the ideal type of animal...Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!
--newspaper article, pomerania, Germany, mid-1930s - Dedication
- Thanks to Paul Pavel, Deborah Karl, and Mala Spiegelman for helping this volume into the world.
Thanks to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for a fellowship that allowed me to focus on completing Maus.
And m... (show all)y thanks, with love and admiration, to Francoise Mouly for her intelligence, integrity, editorial skills, and for her love.
For Richieu and for Nadja - First words
- Summer vacation. Francoise and I were staying with friends in Vermont...
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I'm tired from talking, Richieu, and it's enough stories for now...
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the single volume edition of "Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began". It does NOT contain the first volume of the story, Maus I.
DO NOT COMBINE with the omnibus edition containing both Maus I: ... (show all)A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began!!!
Classifications
- Genres
- Graphic Novels & Comics, Teen
- DDC/MDS
- 940.53180922 — History & geography History of Europe History of Europe 1918- World War II, 1939-1945 Social, political, economic history; Holocaust Holocaust Standard subdivisions History, geographic treatment, biography Biography
- LCC
- D804.3 .S66 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania History (General) World War II (1939-1945)
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 8,312
- Popularity
- 1,327
- Reviews
- 154
- Rating
- (4.48)
- Languages
- 13 — Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 33
- ASINs
- 8