Maus Vol 1 & 2

[fizz]

Maus

Art Spiegelman's 'Maus' is a rare commidity in the world of comic books. It tells the story of the writer/artist's father, Vladek Spiegelman, who was a holocaust and Auschwitz survivor during WW2, in the form of a biopic, and how the effects of those days long gone resonated with the resulting generation that continued to live. As an honest portrayal of people/human beings, the book is without parallel. Taking a leaf of its storytelling technique from George Orwell's classic 'Animal Farm', the characters are represented by animal/rodent equivalents. The Polish Jews are mice (hence the title of the book), the Nazi's Cats, the American's dogs and so on. The use of this method allows the book to not just show us easy visual distinction (this is a comic book afterall), but also make a metaphor out of these representations (Cats hunt mice, dogs chase cats etc) about the nature of survival in an unjust, unbalanced world. Spiegelman's choice of including even those portions of the auto biographical story where he visits his father at his home in NY to talk to him and convince him to tell his story is, in a word, brilliant. Such a technique would be hard to accomplish in a conventional text only book without having to break away from the story being told to inform readers of a change in setting while on film it would be too unnoticeable as a technique, but here it works just right.

Also commendible is the honesty with which the book is written; none of the fathers broken, imperfect East European English is doctored to sound correct - it is conveyed in its preserved original manner, therefore statements such as 'Better to spend your time making drawings, what will bring you some money' are found often, sometimes to amusing effect. The books together, broken down into two volumes, offer a terrific, unputdownable read, that is fluid and without complications. They are not without their flaws however - Book 2, the self righteously titled 'And here my troubles began' is indulgent to the point of being self aware. It tarnishes the harsh tone of the fathers staggering survival tale told via very vivid flashbacks and mellows it out with a storyarc about the son (Art) coping up with a father (and hence family life) that he never understood but which he was certainly affected by. Visits to therapists, coming to terms with his mothers suicide after they moved to NY etc offer an alternative to the story we wish we would rather not have read, for in the face of tale of human suffering and determination, this warrants little interest. Despite this minor setback late in the tale, the overall book is a unique amalgam of the visual power of comic books and the simplistic abilities of the written word. A graphic novel worthy of its universal praise and a watershed in the world of realistic non-superhero comic books.

Rating: 4.5/5

[shariqq]

Maus does tell a Holocaust story in comic-book format and in a simplistic un-adultered way - but my biggest issue with this book was : it was boringly simple, or simply boring. Because ti is made clear right in the begining that the father survives, none of the threats he goes through seem real. It feels like he was "lucky" and "lucky again", and oh - "lucky again!". There's never really any sense of foreboding or of danger or even of excitement at his moments of escape/getting safe.

The story concentrates on the Jews, with a few Poles and Nazis thrown in - except for a few instances where the cats are shown as bad, it is taken for granted that everyone knows how Evil the Nazis were. Or maybe its just that during the read, and at the end of it that is what it really becomes - a cartoonised version of a tragedy that feels nothing like a tragedy and something like a cartoon.

Rating: 2/5

p.s.: fizz - I love your signature "Film is truth at 24 frames per second; every cut is a lie."

[fizz]

Shariqq, I see what you are saying here. But for me, the fact that the father survived isn't really the point (the title of book 1 afterall is 'A survivor's tale'), its HOW he managed to in the face of such circumstance.

[fizz]

p.s.: fizz - I love your signature "Film is truth at 24 frames per second; every cut is a lie."

Thanks Shariqq...credit where credit it due, the quote was by master critic and filmaker Jean-Luc Godard.

[X.]

But for me, the fact that the father survived isn't really the point (the title of book 1 afterall is 'A survivor's tale')

lol

I'm with Fizz on this one. Here I think of "The Pianist." We know from the outset that our protagonist will survive his horror (the film is based on his memoir afterall). It's not the story but in its telling. Because of the personal nature of “The Pianist,” I was able to identify with Brody’s character, his life’s devastation, how a well-groomed man is brought to his knees, made a dirty scavenger whose sole purpose is to get through each day (in the most devastating scene towards the end – delirious with hunger – he’s trying to pry open a tin of food)...This film is not about greater things like “absolute good,” it’s about what could happen to you or me if something like WW2 or Hitler or, Jesus forbid, Bappi Lahri were to hit us here. “The Pianist” is my favourite film on the Holocaust. Roman Polanski may be into underage girls, that is debatable and open to society’s interpretation of morality, but he is mad genius.

[fizz]

But for me, the fact that the father survived isn't really the point (the title of book 1 afterall is 'A survivor's tale')

lol

I'm with Fizz on this one. Here I think of "The Pianist." We know from the outset that our protagonist will survive his horror (the film is based on his memoir afterall). It's not the story but in its telling. Because of the personal nature of “The Pianist,” I was able to identify with Brody’s character, his life’s devastation, how a well-groomed man is brought to his knees, made a dirty scavenger whose sole purpose is to get through each day (in the most devastating scene towards the end – delirious with hunger – he’s trying to pry open a tin of food)...This film is not about greater things like “absolute good,” it’s about what could happen to you or me if something like WW2 or Hitler or, Jesus forbid, Bappi Lahri were to hit us here. “The Pianist” is my favourite film on the Holocaust. Roman Polanski may be into underage girls, that is debatable and open to society’s interpretation of morality, but he is mad genius.

AK, great justification.

Polanski is a genius first, then slightly mad & perhaps a bit of a nymphomaniac as well.

I just watched his first feature. Spellbinding! Review soon.

[shariqq]

I understand what you guys are saying - ofcourse, most stories told in a flashback have that disadvantage of telling us something already. But the difference is in the way the character is shown to be alive at the end - did he just walk through it all? or did he survive it after going through hell. Gas-chambers, stuffed cargo-holds, days o fmarching, what not - ofcourse, it is all real. But the book never makes the life of Spiegelman feel threatened at any time. And does it change him? I felt he was the same man going in, as he was in old-age. And the simplistic telling makes it look as if anybody with a decent sized brain in a head would have survived. The Holocaust was a MASS-EXTERMINATION. If the book is about the Holocaust, where is the effect of it ever shown/felt?

For me, it's all the difference between Ben Kingsley acting out a death scene, and a coroner reading a death report. Same end-result, but helluva different effect.