Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History

This is an assigned class text. On its own I thought that it was good, but reading the other texts for class alongside it, this book speaks volumes. Maus depicts Jewish peoples in Europe of both high and low status and the difference it made in terms of possibly saving their life. It is utterly horrific what happened, but I believe that this comic book allows not only a new way of learning history, but the ability to understand a small portion of what it was like to be Jewish in that time period.

I finished this book a week ago, and I still can't get enough of it. I'll certainly read the second volume of this book just to satisfy my curiosity about Vladek's experiences. I'm also having a hard time completely understanding, let alone defending, the core animal metaphor in Maus. It's difficult for me to pinpoint its entire function. Nevertheless, it simply works. Regardless of how much attention the metaphor receives for the novel, it isn't the star of the show. I've never read or seen a Holocaust piece that takes the reader through a Holocaust survivor's experiences so meticulously and bleakly. I couldn't believe how much preparation, making connections, cutting corners, seeking money, exchanging favors, and charisma, and of course, pure luck and spontaneous bodily health was involved in just surviving. Combine this with a meta-narrative of what it means to try to understand your forefathers and their stories. What it means to you, what it means in general, and what it means to the person who lived through it and only has memories to show for it. I'm constantly wrestling with this notion, with stories from my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, about events that occurred before I was born, events that should have no influence on me but continue to concern and affect me. Overall this book is a perfect Holocaust story and an incredible memoir about understanding our previous generations that has gotten under my skin and will probably be on my mind for a while.

I had read many, many books on the Holocaust before I read Maus but Maus moved my understanding from an intellectual one to a very viscerally emotional one. I felt as if I and my family had endured the cruelty and horror directly. It's not an easy book to read. I had to put it down and sob sometimes. I had trouble wanting to pick it back up and to keep reading it sometimes. But this only speaks to how well told and how important its story is. It's up to every one of us to learn how the Holocaust happened, how it happened moment by moment, being by being, so that we can, hopefully, prevent it from every happening again. This book is a masterpiece that should be on the shelves of anyone who wants to learn from history in an effort to keep from repeating its worst chapters.

My family was murdered by the Nazis - probably in Auschwitz. Nothing I have read has made me realize what it was like in there as much as this book did. It has haunted me. Brilliant, briliiant book. No amount of praise will do justice to the author..

This wonderful graphic novel is being banned in American schools, in 2022 - this is how it begins , the cutting off of voices and historical facts; everyone needs to read the Maus novels while we still are allowed to do so.