Book Review: Maus: A Survivor's Tale

I have to confess this - I was not a great fan of comics till my friend Pratheek introduced me to the Manga series “Lone wolf and the cub” last year. But even before I got hooked into this genre of story telling, I had heard about “Maus”. While doing some research on the great works detailing the Nazi concentration camp/extermination camp experience, I was told that this satire was a must read for anyone wanting to understand the sufferings of the survivors of the infamous Auschwitz and its infamous Birkenue extension.

Maus is an attempt by Art Spiegelman to heal himself and his family of the horrific memories of Nazi atrocities. Book one “Maus: A Survivor's Tale - My Father Bleeds History” deals with the story of Vladek Spiegelman’s (Art Spiegelman’s father) life in Poland before the WW2 and the subsequent rise of anti Semitism post Poland’s Nazi invasion. Vladek Spiegelman’s struggles in protecting his family in Radomsko, Częstochowa, Sosnowiec and Bielsko in the late 1930s are chronicled in details and the first book ends where he and his wife is taken as prisoners to the notorious Auschwitz.

In the second book “Maus : A Survivor's Tale -Here My Troubles Began”, Spiegelman’s complex relation with his parents is dealt in detail. His mother Anja Spiegelman survived the concentration camps but later succumbed to her nightmares and committed suicide. His father was far from the resourceful and compassionate Nazi prisoner in his old age and ill treated and his second wife Mala, also a concentration camp survivor.

While discussing about the huge divide that exists in Delhi over communal lines, one of my professors mentioned about collective psyche and how the scars run over generations. Reading Maus and reading about Art Spiegelman’s guilt in having escaped the Nazi pogrom would give us an idea about this concept.

The satire Maus is known for using various anthropomorphic animals, according to nationality or race. Jews, for example, are depicted as human-like mice, Germans as cats, Americans as dogs, and Poles as pigs. The anthropomorphic allegories drawn are powerful. For example - Jews, as mice, as weak and helpless victims, Germans, as cats, suggest power over the Jews and malevolence (cats often play with mice before killing them) or Dogs for the Americans suggest power, friendliness and enmity towards cats! By using such metophors, Spiegelman is ridiculing the Nazi and other extremist world views of grouping people according to their race/nationality/colour etc...

Maus picked up many awards and popularized this genre of story telling. A telling ensemble is Persepolis, a French graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, describing her childhood in Iran after the revolution. (Thanks to Pratheek George Thomas, I can now write a review for that too)


Awards

• 1988 Angoulême International Comics Festival Awards - Religious Award: Christian Testimony & Prize for Best Comic Book: Foreign Comic Award (Maus: un survivant raconte).
• 1988 Urhunden Prize - Foreign Album (Maus).
• 1990 Max & Moritz Prizes - Special Prize (Maus). 1992 Pulitzer Prize - Special Awards and Citations - Letters (Maus).
• 1992 Eisner Award - Best Graphic Album: Reprint (Maus II).
• 1992 Harvey Award - Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work (Maus II).
• 1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (Maus II, A Survivor's Tale).
• 1993 Angoulême International Comics Festival Awards - Prize for Best Comic Book: Foreign comic (Maus: un survivant raconte, part II).
• 1993 Urhunden Prize - Foreign Album (Maus II).

Verdict: 10/10 – A must read!!!