I'm tired from talking...and it's enough stories for now

We're having an open house right now, and since I don't have a car in order to get anywhere not the house (and it's cold and there's snow everywhere so walking 2+ miles doesn't sound like super fun) I figured I'll hide upstairs and work on a review! Now let's see, next up to review is...Maus II. Great. Something light-hearted.

I'm having, if possible, even more trouble coming up with what to say about Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began than I had with Maus I, and not only because it's been a few months since I read it.

Maus I takes place in occupied Poland, with Vladek and his family having to deal with all of the pain and terror that comes with being Jewish in a place that really does not like Jews.  Maus II takes place after Vladek and his wife Anja have been taken Auschwitz. So things go from bad to oh-my-god-this-is-the-worst-please-let-me-go-back-to-how-it-was-before. The story is depressing, which you should expect because Holocaust. You know things are going to be OK for Vladek and Anja (for awhile) because the story is Vladek telling his son Art about his time at the camp, so obviously he makes it out. Just because there's a silver lining, doesn't make things any less heartbreaking. Just because Vladek and Anja make it out of the camp, doesn't mean lots of other mice do.

Vladek's telling is matter of fact, which in a way serves the story well because you don't get quite so fatigued reading about the terrible things that happen. Vladek talks about receiving a beating from a guard after he spoke a couple words to Anja. When telling his son all he says is "So he beat me, what can I tell you? Only, thank God, Anja didn't get also such a beating. She wouldn't live." If this wasn't a true story I could see such a telling as coming off as cold and distant. Coming from someone relieving the event, the coping mechanism is more than understandable.

Vladek displays a lot of strength and ingenuity during these dire times. He's very ill for awhile (cos you know, death camps aren't great for your health) and of course he's seeing terrible things happen constantly, but still he manages to stay relatively safe and of course he makes it out.

There's another thing that makes the story more complex, more interesting: Vladek isn't some saint. Most of the story takes place during his time at the camp or his time marching, but a good chunk of the story is Art's interviews with his father in the present day and his farther seems like a lot to deal with. He's not bad, he's not evil. He's an old man who was constantly insulting Art's step-mother until she gave up and left him and now he's alone and guilts Art and Art's wife into spending time with him. You feel for Vladek while at the same time you can feel Art's frustration. He loves his father, that isn't in doubt, but family is never that simple.

You should read this. It's hard to really give reasons here. I want to say the typical things like "It's amazing and beautiful" but then a lot of caveats come in. Like "well I mean, it's amazing but also about the Holocaust and I mean, that's not amazing. Also it's beautiful but not like, piles of dead mice/people beautiful and oh no, I think I've sort of committed a hate crime. I'm sorry." So I'll just repeat, you should read this.

Gif rating:

Title quote from page 136

Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. Pantheon Books, 1986.

To die, it's easy. But you have to struggle for life!

It seems that graphic novels are a thing now* and I like things and trends and whatnot and wanted to play. I'd only ever read one before, Fun Home, and thought it was time to give some more a try. I was limping** around The Strand and I found their graphic novel/comic book section and decided today is the day I try this graphic novel thing again. And thus I picked up Maus A Survivor's Tale and Kill Shakespeare.

I decided to start with Maus because I wanted to depress myself. Well, that's only one of the reasons. It's also one I've been meaning to read because I've heard nothing but great things about it. And it's closer in style to Fun Home which I enjoyed.

For those that don't know, (so like 4 of you? probably) Maus is about the Holocaust. Or I guess technically the first book, which is the one I read, is about the time leading up to the Holocaust.

Art Spiegelman tells his father's story of his time living in Poland leading up to being sent to a concentration camp. Jews are mice, nazis are cats, Polish non-Jews & non-Nazis are pigs and I think those are all the animals.

The idea of animals instead of people can make the story seem somewhat...happy? Not, not happy. It's still the Holocaust. Whimsical? For children? I mean, American Tale is about Jewish mice chased out of their home when their village is Russia is burned to the ground and the escape to the tenements of NYC. This is pretty much just that, right? No, but until just now I didn't think of the fact that there was another piece of media that used the mice as Jews thing.

I remember reading somewhere (and I really wish I could remember where) saying that a lot of Holocaust literature has some sort of frame story or element to add a layer between the reader and what happened (Death as narrator for The Book Thief for example).

The horror of the events are a lot to handle without some device that lets your guard down. If that was Spiegelman's intention it works well. The fact that the characters are mice in no way makes you care about them less. It also doesn't downplay the seriousness of the story or make things any less painful to read.

The story jumps back and forth between the present when Art is visiting his father and his step-mother (his mother committed suicide years earlier) to hear his father tell his story. His father never comes off as a saint. Or even a particularly present person to be around. Which if anything further humanizes his father, mouse or no mouse.

This was excellent. It was amazing and moving and terrifying and depressing and of course it made me cry. I wish I had picked up Maus II so I could pick it up immediately after. You should read it. Everyone should read it. If you don't think you like graphic novels, read it anyway.

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*OK, by "now" I mean I have recently heard non-graphic novel/comics people talking about them and starting to read them.
**I had, it turned out, sprained my ankle not long before getting to the bookstore because I was comparing how pale I am (very) against Tom (not pale at all) (this is not a surprise or anything. It's not like a new fact that he's much darker than me) and I messed up stepping off a curb because I am AMAZINGLY GRACEFUL. If you're wondering if it still hurts, yes, a little bit. So that's fun.

Title quote from page 122

Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor's Tale I: My Father Bleeds History. Pantheon Books, 1980