Lauren 's Reviews > The Complete Maus

One of my local book clubs revisited some "classic" graphic works for last month's reading selections, and had a great online discussion this past Monday.

I recall reading Maus volume 1 in my sophomore (year 10) of high school, but unfortunately that is about all I remember, other than mice = Jews / cats = Nazis.

Re-reading now, xx years later and with volume 2 continuing the story, I got the full picture, and a lot more understanding than I would have gotten as a 15 year-old young'un.

I won't recount the story, but I will comment on Spiegelman's exceptional storytelling techniques of fourth-wall breaking and time shifts. This is a dual narrative of Vladek and Anja in the ghetto and in Auschwitz, but it is also the story of what it is to be a child of survivors of an absolute trauma.

While so many scenes and conversations stay with me, there's a conversation in V2 where Art is talking with his therapist Pavel that rocked me and continues to echo in my mind, regarding the randomness of survival and the stories that were told and not told, dropping a quote from Samuel Beckett :
"Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness."



(Oof... hard to transition from that)



MAUS is one of the most well-known graphic works in the English language, and has been translated into dozens of other languages, and is also taught in many English and history classes, as I first encountered it.

For some of my book club mates, this was their first time reading a graphic work. MAUS continues to be that gateway for many, regardless of age.