'Maus' by Art Spiegelman

‘Maus’ was a very heavy read. Not excruciatingly long, but the dark subject matter seemed to stretch the book. Knowing that this is a true story evoked different emotions than if it was an alternative history fiction novel. This story made me very sad for what Spiegelman’s father went through, even though he could be unpleasant at times. 

Something important that stood out to me was the use of language in ‘Maus’. The conversations seemed logical and naturally paced. There’s even a point in part two of the story where he pokes fun of how he can edit conversation in his book. His father’s broken English was realistic to me, but over the course of the book got grating to read. I found myself editing his speech in my head to be grammatically correct. Showing his own progress on how he made the book helps the reader understand the long process of converting his father’s memories to pages.

I also think it was smart to portray the “characters” as animals instead of humans. I’m not sure if I could have handled this book if it was full of drawings of tortured people. I would probably just be silently crying the whole time while reading. We have a different connection to animals. It also helped to easily identify the races or religions of the characters. He used another animal’s head as a mask to show how the Jews had to hide their identity as best they could to sneak around. However he did have some struggles with deciding on animal aliases. He made a Frenchman his father met in the camps a frog, but his wife is French and ultimately decided to make her a mouse as well. There is a sibling rivalry between Art and his “ghost-brother” who did not survive the war. I find it strange to be compared to a memory. On the last page of part two, his father calls him his brother’s name, Richieu.

Stylistically, the story is quite simple and this aids the legibility. The art does not compete with the subject matter. There are subtleties in some of the panels that I think are great details. In one cell on page 125 of part one, when his parents are trying to remain free under Germany’s control, the road is actually shaped like a swastika. The chapter illustrations are usually more detailed than the story pages. Most of them are very dark, with both heavy line weight and subject matter.