The Complete MAUS

by Art Spiegelman

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale and Maus II - the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler's Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents. A contemporary classic of immeasurable significance.

• ISBN10: 067092167X
• ISBN13: 9780670921676
• Publish Date: 3 November 2011 (first published 2 October 2003)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 March 2013
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Viking
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 296
• Language: English

Reviews

[alessio]

Altre recensioni sul mio blog: https://www.artedellalettura.it/.

Definire Maus "Graphic Novel" e basta sarebbe riduttivo. Non sapevo bene cosa aspettarmi da questo libro, ma non potevo di certo aspettarmi una lettura così forte e d'impatto.


Trama
Maus narra della storia del padre dell'autore, un ebreo polacco, durante la seconda guerra mondiale. La prima parte mostra il graduale inasprimento della vita del padre prima della guerra, fino ad arrivare alla segregazione e alla deportazione. La seconda parte descrive la deportazione e la vita nel campo di concentramento di Majdanek prima e di Auschwitz poi.

Le vicende ci vengono mostrate tramite i ricordi in flashback del padre. Tra queste l'autore inserisce anche i dialoghi che avvengono col padre nel presente, come se volesse mostrare al lettore come è stato creato il fumetto oppure le conseguenze che la prigionia ha avuto sul padre.


Disegni
I disegni di Maus sono sporchi, ricchi di nero. Aprendo una qualsiasi pagina salta subito all'occhio la forte presenza di colori scuri e ombre, quasi a voler appesantire ancor di più la storia. Ogni vignetta funziona in perfetta sintonia con la storia, aumentando il senso di angoscia che si ha durante la lettura.


Conclusioni
Una graphic novel meravigliosa, assolutamente consigliata a tutti.

[boghunden]

This was a very interesting read, but somehow very depressing.

I read this in Danish, and the writing style was very annoying. "Den mand, den hus, den vej, den skole." 'Den, den, den,' all the time! I think it would have been much better in English, although I have no idea if that's correct or not. I was told there'd be a lot of humor in this book, but I don't think so. To me, it wasn't humor as much as it was sarcasm. It was really sarcastic, and I loved that.

The illustrations are very dark, but that goes fine with the theme of this book. I wasn't too fond of the drawing style, but it didn't really matter that much, since the story was the important part here.

This book has two storylines; one that takes place during WW2 and one that takes place "now" (1980's). This worked very well for me, and I had a hard time deciding on which one I liked the most.

With another writing and drawing style, this book would probably have gained another star. I'd also have liked to be a bit more invested in the story than I was. I don't know, it just needed that little extra something.

A good read though.

[adastra]

A very gripping narrative on two levels. Totally blew over all my expectations. And it's not even fiction.