A review by bashsbooks
The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

What can I say about Maus that hasn't already been said? I doubt there is anything - I think everything there was to say about this cultural behemoth and the horrors of history it shares in intimate detail were said before I was even born. I first read Maus when I was 12 and just beginning to understand what the Holocaust really was. Now, at 24, I still find it hard to wrap my head around. But Vladek Spiegelman's experience before, during, and after the war comes alive in this graphic novel. Art Spiegelman excels at focusing on his parents' experience while giving tidbits at the larger shared experience of Holocaust victims. For me, the graphicness and the specificity to two people's story are what makes Maus so effective. The visual metaphor helps a lot, too. Incredible work, truly. I know so many say this, but I have to agree - I think everyone should read Maus. 

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