Book Review: The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

Life must go on. People eventually go on to live regular, ordinary lives which can mask even the gravest tragedy they have suffered in the past. Sometimes a first glance at somebody who has been through a lot of pain does not reveal anything about their past. In fact, they could be perceived as an irritating and a frustrating personality. Such is the portrayal of Vladek Spiegelman. He is a real-life holocaust survivor and has been depicted as a character in The Complete Maus- a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. 

 

The book is a flashback narration of the life of Vladek- the protagonist, and of other people around him, including his late wife Anja. Set in Germany from the time when Hitler is coming into power till the end of World War 2, it narrates the tale of fear, death, horror, uncertainty, love, anger, liberation, survival, lingering hope, and it does so without talking at all about the politics or the worldly affairs of the time. It is a narration of humans in their barest forms- some destined to unimaginable ugly deaths, some destined to witness it, and some to cause it. 

 

The author is careful enough and aware of the overwhelming content. He has therefore chosen to give breaks between the narration of holocaust by writing about the present times when his father (Vladek) is not talking about holocaust but is instead ranting about the grocery store that won’t take back an opened pack of cereals. The relationship between the author and his father is not the best, but they manage. It is quite funny how the author and his fiancé do not want to live with Vladek, not because they don’t care or are arrogant, but because they are afraid! Nevertheless, the author makes several trips to Vladek for his book as he is the closest person he knows who has lost good business, survived Auschwitz and migrated to USA.

 

The book is not along the likes of “the moral of the story is...”. It does not want to convey a moral message to the reader, at least that is not the purpose. It teaches the reader about fascism, authoritarianism, dictatorship, and wars but not in a preachy manner . It is simply a collection of real events that took place not even a hundred years ago. The book sensitizes the reader. It is not its purpose, but it does.

 

The highlighting characteristic of this graphic book is the depiction of characters as animals. The Jews as mice, Nazis as cats, a Frenchman as frog, Polish as pigs, Swedes as deer and Americans as dogs. There are no clear analogies except the relation between Nazis (Cats) and Jews (Mice), and the Poles as pigs- something that is un-kosher. However, the precise reason for using animals as characters remains a mystery. 

 

The book is overwhelming, yes. But everyone who can read, must read it.