Book: The Complete Maus.
Author and Illustrator: Art Speigelman
Pages: 350
How Long it Took Me To Read: 1 day
Plot Summary:
General Thoughts: This was another book I wanted to read for months and years but it was always slightly too expensive. Then I fell sick in April and decided to treat myself and buy this book and finally the book was available for a little cheaper.
Man! I am so glad I finally got to this book. I LOVED it. This book is on every list of graphic novels you must read. It won the Pulitzer Prize and I can see why. It was a very powerful read.
Review: There were so many great things about this book...
1. I absolutely loved the this story, this true-life story of survival and the willingness to do what it takes to live.
2. I loved the story of Art Spiegelman's father, the story is not just about the war and surviving it, the story begins a little before that. When he was a young man, dating in pre-War years, this gives us a great idea of who he was as a person before the chaos of the war and the trying times. A lot of War books just focus on the war times and the person/ character is seen only in there trying times. I liked seeing the whole picture of this family.
3. The Concentration Camps are only a small part of the story, which was a surprising to me. The lead character spends a large portion of the War hiding from Nazis and finding places to find shelter and surviving.
4. There are so many people you meet in this book, who are trying to live and survive with dignity. People we meet briefly and are told of their fate and some of these characters just broke my heart. I cried the hardest for a middle aged man who wasn't even given the right sized shoes or pants in the concentration camp and was struggling to live in such harsh conditions.
5. The book was does an interesting thing were we see the author in the process of writing the book. Discussing how to write the book and what bits to include and how to ask his father certain questions.
6. I absolutely loved seeing the father son relationship in the book. It was funny and real and lovely.
7. Even the subject matter of the book was incredibly heavy and sad, it was written in such a matter of fact way, it didn't go on and on and on about the wretchedness and made reading this book a much more easy experience.
Rating: 5/5
I loved this book and recommend it wholeheartedly. It is without a doubt one of the best books I've read this year and one of the most remarkable War books I've ever read.
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