Maus volumes 1&2

Ok so most people when they hear the term ‘graphic novel’ think it’s just a fancy shmancy way of saying comic book. Well, to certain degree, they’re right. Graphic novels are often the collected volumes of indiviual comics, but they can also be so much more than that…

The complete Maus (volumes I & II), is a story not of superpowered heroes wearing primary-coloured costumes but of the survival and the complicated relationship between a father and his son. 

Art Speigalman tells the story of how his parents survived the holocaust and escaped Auschwitz. Like Animal Farm before it, Maus has animals representing  each faction - Jews are mice, Nazis are cats, the Polish are pigs, Americans are dogs and so on… With this in mind, this becomes not just another holocaust survival story, but an engrossing account of what happened to those who lived and those that died. Maus also documents how the tale came to be written with Art’s father Vladek  not always a sympathetic character, but  real nonetheless.

I put off reading Maus for the longest time because I knew that it was about WW2 and the holocaust, but once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down. I was completely engrossed in the intensely personal and painful story of Art, his father Vladek his mother Anya and the brother who didn’t make it but still impacts upon his life.

I would seriously recommend this book to be read!!!