Book Review: Maus (Complete Part I and II) by Art Spiegelman

Maus (Complete Part I and II) by Art Spiegelman

How difficult it is to write the review of a book acclaimed worldwide by critics? It is the only graphic novel to have won a Pulitzer Prize.  Between moral weight and artistic expression, one struggles to find words that do justice to a depiction of quiet lives being lived alongside a loud and brutal sweep of history.

"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting," - Milan Kundera 

“A human being survives by his ability to forget. Memory is always ready to blot out the bad and retain only the good.” - Varlam Shalamov

Both these quotes hold profound significance in understanding the dynamics of power struggles, history, and human agency. Yet some memories refuse oblivion; they persist through narrative as a warning and a plea to the humanity. This memory has been itched in a book touching the lives of many and showing all the importance of bearing witness through art. History has shown that it does not start with concentration camps or mass murder, or civil war or genocide. It always starts with words: stereotypes, cliches, tropes. The fight against dehumanization, therefore, also needs to start with words. Stories. This is where Spiegelman’s Maus stands—using the intimacy of storytelling to resist erasure of the unimaginable suffering.

Maus is a graphic novel in two parts and it’s autobiographical written by Art Spiegelman. Maus I: My Father Bleeds History tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman’s life in pre-war Poland and his survival through the Nazi ghettos and camps. Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began continues Vladek’s story with the death marches, liberation from Auschwitz and the aftershocks of war. Through his parents (Vladek and Anja’s) experiences, the author depicts the horrors of the Holocaust, trauma of the survivors and tortured relationship with his aging father.

Set against the devastated landscapes of wartime and postwar Europe, the story offers an unflinching portrayal of survival, resilience, and the generational legacy of the Holocaust, blending personal memory with historical narrative. Through Anja Spiegelman, Vladek's wife, exhibits a different kind of heroism marked by emotional resilience and mental stamina. The novel also explores the complicated nature of heroism by refusing to idealize its characters. Through Vladek’s character, Spiegelman captures both the ingenuity that ensured survival and the lingering psychological scars that shadow life long after liberation. 

In Maus, last part of the narrative unfolds in 1970 at Rego Park, New York, centering around Art Spiegelman’s strained relationship with his father, Vladek who is portrayed with flaws - difficult personality, frugality, and moments of bitterness. The most remarkable and unexpected page in the graphic novel was the reaction of Vladek with fear and racial slur towards a Black Man. Spiegelman portrays a painful irony: a Holocaust survivor, once persecuted himself, now exhibits prejudices similar to those that dehumanized him. Maus teaches the readers a critical lesson on how discrimination persists universally, transcending both time and place.

The graphic novel’s layered storytelling merges visuals and text to evoke a powerful emotional and intellectual response. Spiegelman’s minimalist black-and-white art style that contrasts innocence and brutality effectively. Through its first-person perspective and the seamless interplay of image and language, it offers a profound exploration of both the graphic novel form and Holocaust memory.

In Maus, the symbolic use of animal allegory- Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, and the French as frogs—functions as a striking visual metaphor that exposes the constructed nature of racial and national identities. This also sparked criticism in Poland, where some readers perceive the depiction of Poles as pigs as perpetuating negative stereotypes and oversimplifying complex historical realities.

Beyond its artistic merit, “Maus” stands as an example of the power of art to document the genocide and offer commentary on the horrors of the Third Reich. The allure is not so much to do with history as it is to present human, where flawed ideas of racial supremacy lead to genocide as cautionary tales to the readers. Maus is an essential read that tackles both private memory and historical horror.