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Ray's Reviews > Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)
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Ray's review
bookshelves: comics, indie, nonfic
Jan 31, 2008
bookshelves: comics, indie, nonfic
Read 2 times. Last read November 6, 2023 to November 8, 2023.
Still a masterpiece, as relevant as ever. Unfortunately. Maus always has been, actually, more about Art Spiegelman's complex relationship with his father than it is *just* about the overwhelming trauma of the Holocaust.
In fact, utilizing the visual metaphor of funny animals is the most poignant way to humanize these characters. They are not just one group, they could be anyone. And yet it is self-aware how contradictory it is to relate different human 'races' to different animals.
Another thing (which is in the second volume) is that his father who is clearly a victim can also be racist. That's the sad nature of humanity. Like is complex and terrible, it is what it is. Irreverent cartoons are the only appropriate way to express this.
And there's the mother's suicide, other issues with women, so much in this simple looking graphic novel. Every generation should continue to reread this tale of generational trauma...
In fact, utilizing the visual metaphor of funny animals is the most poignant way to humanize these characters. They are not just one group, they could be anyone. And yet it is self-aware how contradictory it is to relate different human 'races' to different animals.
Another thing (which is in the second volume) is that his father who is clearly a victim can also be racist. That's the sad nature of humanity. Like is complex and terrible, it is what it is. Irreverent cartoons are the only appropriate way to express this.
And there's the mother's suicide, other issues with women, so much in this simple looking graphic novel. Every generation should continue to reread this tale of generational trauma...
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Nov 10, 2023 09:31PM
I read this years ago, but the scene where the German cat was seen as a Jewish mouse by the Nazis still sticks with me.
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It's a haunting scene. A good way to express the limitations of the animals-as-races metaphor, highlighting its own absurdity as the artists acknowledges that it doesn't make sense.
