World Famous Comics: Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
By: Art Spiegelman Publisher: Pantheon Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Pantheon Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 160 Publication Date: August 12, 1986 Release Date: August 12, 1986
Amazon.com: Some historical events simply beggar any attempt at description--the Holocaust is one of these. Therefore, as it recedes and the people able to bear witness die, it becomes more and more essential that novel, vigorous methods are used to describe the indescribable. Examined in these terms, Art Spiegelman's Maus is a tremendous achievement, from a historical perspective as well as an artistic one.
Spiegelman, a stalwart of the underground comics scene of the 1960s and '70s, interviewed his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor living outside New York City, about his experiences. The artist then deftly translated that story into a graphic novel. By portraying a true story of the Holocaust in comic form--the Jews are mice, the Germans cats, the Poles pigs, the French frogs, and the Americans dogs--Spiegelman compels the reader to imagine the action, to fill in the blanks that are so often shied away from. Reading Maus, you are forced to examine the Holocaust anew.
This is neither easy nor pleasant. However, Vladek Spiegelman and his wife Anna are resourceful heroes, and enough acts of kindness and decency appear in the tale to spur the reader onward (we also know that the protagonists survive, else reading would be too painful). This first volume introduces Vladek as a happy young man on the make in pre-war Poland. With outside events growing ever more ominous, we watch his marriage to Anna, his enlistment in the Polish army after the outbreak of hostilities, his and Anna's life in the ghetto, and then their flight into hiding as the Final Solution is put into effect. The ending is stark and terrible, but the worst is yet to come--in the second volume of this Pulitzer Prize-winning set. --Michael Gerber
Product Description: A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.
Masterpiece! As a Jew Living in Israel, holocaust related books are important to read, but it's hard to do it actually. I can remember several holocaust-era semi-biographic novels which are great but those are the exceptions. Most of the books are a bit bothersome though true. Maus just captured me.I consider it one of the best books I've ever read in my life. It was just breath-taking, adding to that the fact that this was my first graphic novel ever, not to say first comic ever. I gave it to my wife, her parents, brother and so on. The book came back to me after 6 month. all worn out. The book touched me in the deepest levels, and was able to do what many other holocaust books tried to do and failed. Take you inside one of the the darkest eras of human kind. You NEED to read to. You have to read it.
Poignant Maus, A Survivor's Tale is a son's pictorial version of his father's story of survival during WWII.
Both haunting and mesmerizing, sometimes funny and touching, this is a story of perseverance and about what the Jews had to suffer through at the hands of the Nazis in WWII Poland. Spiegleman never sugar-coats what his father had to endure in order to keep he and his wife alive. A true work of art.
HORRIBLY RACIST DISTORTION EXPLOITATION OF STUDENTS & WWII Horribly distorts the true suffering of WWII victims. The Poles who are portrayed as pigs and the Jews who are portrayed as RATS is not a good beginning. The Poles and the Jews suffered the most. The Polish Catholics lost 3 million, in what has become known as the Forgotten Holocaust. The Poles lost another 2 Million to Stalins barbaric Gulags. When the Nazis were defeated, the Soviet Communists took over and were more barbaric to the Poles than the Nazis, although both brutally oppressive and cruel to the Polish nation. Maus/Rat, whatever you call it, uses a horrible and untrue depiction of the Poles. The Poles were the first to go to Auschwitz and die. Polish teachers, school children (giggling and playing having no idea what horror awaited them, my God), professors, nuns, priests were the first victims of Auschwits, for the wars first 2 years. Jews were not taken to auschwitz until May of 1942! The Germans had already slaughtered 1 Million Polish Catholics before the Jewish campaign even started! The Poles still defide Hitler saving more Jews than any other country. What makes this more incredible is that, Only in Poland were entire Polish-Catholic families, towns and villages executed for, as little as, handing a Jew an apple. in Denmark, Sweden, Hollannd, Norway, a slap on the hand was given - that's it! These countries, also had some of the most brutal Nazi organizations,.i.e., they collaborated eith the Nazis, as Poland DID NOT! For a true and purely objective learning, and not one man's version, bias or hate towards the tortured Poles, and other nations, read a short but to the point book with tons of info, perfect for Jr, High, High School and Adults: Andrew Hempels" Poland in WORLD WAR II; also Richard lukas' The FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST;Poles Under Nazi Occupation (talks about everyone's suffering); finally, and a great litttle book on Auschwitz with big returns is AUSCHWITZ by Sybille Steinbacher. Steinbacher's book is easy to read and very clear; gets to the point and very objective. These books are so centered and incredibly objective,i.e., no embellishments, just truth and fact. The Rat book is a despicable generalization and distortion of truth. Scholars and Educators: Please, be sensitive and 'Take the bull by the horns.' Enjoy the summer - you.ve earned it.
Personlizing the Holocaust One (two actually since there are two volumes) of the best submissions about the Holocaust which is designed to reach a broad audience. Maus and Maus II are written in the vernacular, personalizing the experiences of a camp survivor who is interviewed by his son. Excellent supplement to any Holocaust discussion.
Borders in store buy 4 get on free offer When I included this and Perseplos & Maus 2 I was informed that they are not graphic novels and that I could not have one free. AMAZING! Of course after I asked for the distric manager's name/number there was a sudden change of heart BUT NOT a good instore experience from BORDERS at ALL. The GRAPHIC NOVEL is great. Borders are not.
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