Goodreads Says: Acclaimed as a quiet triumph and a brutally moving work of art, the first volume of Art Spieglman's Maus introduced readers to Vladek Spiegleman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist trying to come to terms with his father, his father's terrifying story, and History itself. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), succeeds perfectly in shocking us out of any lingering sense of familiararity with the events described, approaching, as it does, the unspeakable through the diminutive.This second volume, subtitled And Here My Troubles Began, moves us from the barracks of Auschwitz to the bungalows of the Catskills. Genuinely tragic and comic by turns, it attains a complexity of theme and a precision of thought new to comics and rare in any medium. Maus ties together two powerful stories: Vladek's harrowing tale of survival against all odds, delineating the paradox of daily life in the death camps, and the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. At every level this is the ultimate survivor's tale - and that too of the children who somehow survive even the survivors.
My Thoughts:
- This really puts things into perspective. I've never read a story so real and honest about the Jews during WWII.
- What happened to a lot of Vladek's family and friends is so sad. What happened to Vladek and Anja was sad. This was a sad book.
- I think I'd rather die than live in Auschiwitz.
- I'm surprised the Jews didn't die of fright. It would be awful to live in a constant state of fear.
- Unlike the first book, I felt like the illustrations were fitting for this story.
- The relationship between Art and his dad was funny and sad all at the same time. I enjoyed seeing the modern day happenings of Vladek's life.
- I'm really glad the author included a real photo of his dad in one of the panels.
- The ending was good. It was peaceful.
First Maus Book
(cover is linked to my thoughts)
I liked this one better than the first one. It was much more real and deep. I'm glad we read the first one for book club so we wanted to read this one.
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