I saw an interview between Neil Gaiman and Art Spiegelman once, where Art spoke of Maus. Ever since then, I have kept an eye open for it. I planned on reading these two books over two months. I ended up reading them in a single morning.This is the true story of Art Spiegelman's father as a Jewish person in Poland, and eventually in Auschwitz, during World War II.
Even though Art Spiegelman chose to illustrate this graphic novel with animals instead of people, I did not feel distanced from the characters at all. In fact, because of their innocent appearance, I felt even closer. I also preferred the cruder art style in hindsight, as it did not 'beautify' the times. It was disturbing without being horrifying. I think the use of black and white also worked in its favour as it left the 'colour' up to the reader's imagination.
I also liked how Art Spiegelman told this story - multiple interviews between him and his father in the 'present' day. It added so much more humanity to the tale as they all became very real. There was no point in this where I felt that I was reading fiction. I also appreciated how Art struggled to portray his father, and how he wrestled with being honest and portraying him as he was, the negatively stereotypical Jewish man, Even though his father was clearly a flawed man, I could still admire him. It was also interesting seeing the creator in a book. Usually the artist is hiding. It was an unusual but fascinating perspective.I would love to get this for the school library. I think the way WW2 was covered really brings so much more home than purely reading 'what happened'. This broke my heart.
I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads (another example of enjoyment not being an adequate criteria to judge anything.)
These were the 62nd and 63rd books I have read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.
