 Simply incredible Book |
| Review Date: May 27, 2010 |
| Reviewer: S Day, |
| The book does not pull any punches, and it is particularly honest in its portrayal of the author's difficult relationship with his father who is shown as a rather mean spirited and manipulative old man. The book also examines the author's difficulties in composing the narrative and trying to understand exactly what his father and mother experienced. I recommend these books (or the one combined version here ) to everyone. If you don't think you can take the pain, you can, in this presentation. If you think you've heard it all, you haven't. If you think you'll never forget, just wait. This will ensure it. On an aesthetic level, this book is beautiful. The illustrations are simple and yet show a great eye for perspective. |
Brilliant Example of the Graphic Medium's Potential
|
| Review Date: May 12, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Travis S. Mcclain, KY |
From my blog review:[...]
For those unfamiliar with this project, Maus tells two stories. Predominantly, it is the story of how Vladek Spiegelman survived the Nazi regime and Hitler's concentration camps. Interspersed throughout, though, is a present day depiction of the interaction between Vladek and his son, Art. Art expresses both admiration for, and exasperation with, Vladek. This is, for me, the most meaningful part of Spiegelman's story. We have a habit of reducing history to a one-dimensional existence in our minds. The Jews who were targeted by the Nazis were all pitiable victims, the Nazis were all inhuman monsters, etc. What Spiegelman has done with Maus is show that the survivors were admirable...and that they were much more than that, as well. It turns out, they were also human and got on their children's nerves the same as nearly every other parental generation. Rather than undermining the dignity and resilience of Vladek, Maus makes him more relevant because he's a whole person and not a cardboard cutout.
Spiegelman took an awful chance bringing his father's story to the medium of graphic storytelling in the 1980s. Even in 2009, the same year that a movie adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen (long considered unfilmable), the notion of telling of a holocaust survivor's story in comic book form seems destined to offend. The fact that Spiegelman presents ethnicities as animals (i.e., Jews are depicted as mice, Germans as cats, etc.) would seemingly further remove from the story its proper sense of weight. Remarkably, Vladek's story is perhaps even more striking told through Art's presentation. There is, strangely, a heightened sense of humanity throughout "Maus" that I often find absent even in History Channel programs drawing on actual video footage of the described events.
Simply put, I cannot offer a higher recommendation than the one I give to Art Spiegelman's "Maus: A Survivor's Tale." Originally, Maus was serialized in Spiegelman's comic anthology series Raw; I read the two volume collected edition. Since then, the entire work has been collected in a singular volume. Whichever incarnation you find available, I urge you to take the time to read the tale of Vladek Spiegelman. |
Surviving the Survivors
|
| Review Date: April 6, 2010 |
| Reviewer: J. Sherman, New York, USA |
In this second installment of Art Spiegelman's comic, the author continues to chronicle his cantankerous father's tale of survival in Nazi Europe. The comic also follows Art as he is torn between his admiration for Vladek Spiegelman surviving the horrors of the Holocaust, and his frustration with Vladek's failure to survive in present-day America. Once again, Art chalks up a black-and-white comic that is anything but.
This comic is unrated: Violence, Adult Language, Adult Situations. |
Great Book
|
| Review Date: February 16, 2010 |
| Reviewer: S. Oakley, |
| This was an excellent book. I received the first one for Christmas, and completed it within a day. |
Just as great as Volume I
|
| Review Date: December 27, 2009 |
| Reviewer: MYKKWW, East Coast, USA |
It doesn't get any better than this.}
It's almost beyond giving it a "review"....Both I and II are so important and so good. An honor to the six million and more. |
|
No video reviews found for this product.
