NA ( )

I'd looked at this book many times before, and read sections of it, but I've never read it straight through before. Truly perfect, a classic. ( )

Just as good the second time as it was the first time. Poignant, painful and very evocative. I think the genre of it makes it even more accessible to people who do not love books, history channel history pieces, or movies. Or who wanted an even more in-depth version in a way that was easier. I love that it does a good job of showing us the present and the past, those who it happens to and those who have to deal with the repercussions in the next generations (or marriages). ( )

One of the greatest graphic books I have ever read, easily. Absolutely worthy of the Pulitzer prize. It's a biography of the author's father in a time that's marked by that awful event we all know about. I can't wait to read Maus II.
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This graphic novel wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it would be a story of Jews in Germany. It is, but it's also the story of Art Spiegelman's relationship with his father. Art visits his father, showing all the tension between them and between his dad and his second wife, as he listens to his father tell about being a Jew during the Nazi regime.

The graphic novel begins with Art arriving at his father's house. You discover that Art's mother is dead and his stepmother is Mama who puts up with his miserly, complaining father. As his father rides his stationary bike, he tells about his life. He tells about his first lover and then how he left her to marry his wife. His wife was a kinder woman but always nervous.She suffered postpartum depression after their first child was born. His father borrowed money from his father-in-law to open a textile factory that was successful. Once the Nazi begin to have power, Mr. Spiegelman is drafted. After more than a year, he sneaks home. They spend several years hiding from the Nazis as the nazis allow fewer and fewer freedoms to the Jews. Mr. Spiegelman is very brave--or stupid. He goes out and buys/sells on the black market and often avoids or gets away from Nazis until he finally makes a wrong decision and they are rounded up and sent to Auschwitz.

I'm still surprised by the difficult relationship between the father and son, but it's hard to put the book down as we see what Mr. Spiegelman does to avoid the Nazis until he is finally captured. The saddest part is what happened to Art's older brother. I assume book II details life in the concentration camp. ( )