Maus by Art Spiegelman | Graphic Novel Review

[Review] Maus by Art Spiegelman | Graphic Novel | Pulitzer Prize Winner

Maus by Art Spiegelman is probably one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time. With good reason. Not only is it a profoundly personal story for Spiegelman, it also attempts to explore the human condition. Despite the characters being represented by animals, there’s something unsettlingly human in their behaviour and interactions.

I discovered Maus when I was in school, and I’m glad it took me this long to read it. Because, I don’t think I’d be able to appreciate the nuance and empathy with which Spiegelman has told the story of his father, Vladek. Maus won the Pulitzer Prize, and having read the graphic novel, I believe it completely deserves all the acclaim.

Maus by Art Spiegelman | Synopsis

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its first publication, here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker).

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust” (The New York Times).

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his ageing father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.

Cover of The Complete Maus

Maus by Art Spiegelman | Review

Not all books are read for entertainment. Some feature profound explorations of the human condition, giving readers insight into existential truths of not just the self, but of society, culture, and the world it comprises. Maus is one such graphic novel.

An almost anti-thesis to Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Maus presents the world in all its raw and unfiltered brutality. The streets are full of scum. The animals are flawed like real people. Jealousy, greed, and discrimination are rampant in society. Maus doesn’t distract you from history’s worst atrocity, it forces you to stare it in the eye and witness it in all its inhuman magnanimity.

And the victim of this nightmare? The holocaust survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, Art Spiegelman’s own father… he’s surely a likeable hero, no? Wrong. He’s just a human being. He has his share of flaws, from being spiteful and misogynistic towards his second wife Mala, to basically reinforcing the racist stereotype of a miserly Jew. Vladek is neither glorified nor shamed for being who he is. Instead, Art Spiegelman tells his father’s story in the same raw and unfiltered honesty with which he draws the haunting backdrop of the holocaust and Nazi-occupied Poland.

Maus by Art Spiegelman: A Masterpiece

The artwork reminded me a lot of BoJack Horseman. Almost as if Spiegelman is trying to soften the blow of human suffering and cruelty by presenting them as almost-cute animals. I can’t even imagine how much more daunting this graphic novel would have been had Spiegelman decided to draw humans instead. Seeing anthropomorphic animals live through the holocaust was a nightmare enough already.

A human and empathetic exploration of one of history’s most inhuman atrocities. Spiegelman’s art evokes a constant sense of dread and unease as he lays bare the bittersweet story of his father’s survival in Nazi-occupied Poland. The story oscillates between Vladek’s accounts and Art’s present dealing with his ageing father. Masterfully, the graphic novel encapsulates one entire life and with it a major chapter in human history. On one hand, Spiegelman doesn’t present his father as a helpless victim. Vladek is crafty and smart. Within the horrors of the holocaust, Vladek’s is a tale of hope and perseverance.

You might have read other such stories of bravery and survival. But, what makes Vladek’s story different is his unapologetically human portrayal. That, coupled with Spiegelman’s artwork gives a unique personality, both visually and narratively. It’s these creative choices that make Maus stand out of the crowd. A true masterpiece comprising of ordinary men facing extraordinary challenges in an outlandishly inhuman situation. The fact that Spiegelman decided to retain his father’s skewed English speech to narrate this account further adds character to the tale.

A Bittersweet Tale Of Understanding One’s Roots:

The story itself is pretty straightforward. Art Spiegelman is trying to document his father’s experience during the holocaust. While never explicitly stated, it’s hinted that Spiegelman is attempting to make sense of his own existence. After all, he doesn’t relate to his parents. He’s dealt with emotional and mental issues, but they pale when compared to his parents’ suffering during the holocaust. While the present Vladek (1970s-80s) is a miserly curmudgeon, the experiences of living in concentration camps explain why he’s like that.

Art has always been humanity’s medium of exploration of the abstract. Art Spiegelman beautifully uses his talents to immortalise his father’s mortal suffering. Recounting Vladek’s story brings closure to Art’s own qualms and quandaries surrounding Vladek’s personality. Where he couldn’t ever get closure to his mother’s suicide, maybe empathising with his father might bring him closer to understanding the reason for his own being, and by extension, find the strength to move on from his mother’s untimely death.

As much as Maus is a document of Art Spiegelman’s familial history, it is also a cautionary tale of the worst of mankind.

Conclusion:

Maus by Art Spiegelman should be mandatory reading in all schools. I can’t believe that such a masterpiece exists in a world alongside fascists, the same people who take inspiration from the very evil that forced such a story to transpire in the first place.

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ronitjauthor

April 4, 2025