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Summary: Creative presentation of a black day in history
Review: This CD is so creative and the subject matter is so horrible and uncreative. It shows the human spirit can rise above. On a technical note: I would like to warn buyers of this out-of-print CD that there are two editions...the last edition version 1.0.1 has better enhancements for running the CD.#715515004763A truly historic presentation.
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Summary: an amazing
Review: i used Maus as a text for a university class and found it to be a great story which was easy to read. the characters are great, the story amazing and best of all the comic form was brilliant. A must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust.
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Summary: An Offensive Non-Attack on Political Correctness
Review: Having read this, I also take offense at the portrayal of Poles as pigs. Is there ANY other nationality, at ANY other time, which has successfully been portrayed as pigs, and such material been so acclaimed and even used in the classroom? I rather doubt it. Nor is this comic a repudiation of political correctness. After all, Poles (and Christians) are about the only safe groups to villify in public, if only because neither are politically powerful. Could I change my mind in this assessment? Yes. Were Spiegelman to write another cartoon book, this time depicting Jews as pigs, and there were no protests, THEN would I "lighten up" and accept the line about the current portrayal of Poles as pigs being actually non-offensive and no big deal.
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Summary: History and Humanity
Review: I like this graphic novel alot. I think Art Spiegelman does a great job of not only illustrating the tale of a Holocaust concentration camp survivor, but also the tale of struggling to survive having to live with a Holocaust Survivor. Art gives Vladek (and himself) more human characteristics that many authors fail to achieve, and by doing so, makes the historical accounts within his novel even more emotionally evoking and engulfing. It's essentially a novel that tackles the multiple tasks of developing the relationship between a father and his son while still sticking to the focal point of the novel, and that's the story of a Holocaust Survivor. It's a truly universal story that transcends race, color, and creed. Everyone can relate in some way. Even if it is a comic book. LOL!Anyway, I'm doing this review for my Eng 112 class, so I want to give props to my boys Alex and Mike for helping me write this. I hope it's up to par Angie.To be honest I would consider this novel to one of my favorite novel as far. Enjoy book reviewer, because I did.
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Summary: Powerful Journey
Review: In Maus I and Maus II, Art Spiegelman takes an innovative and creative approach to telling a story that many know all too well. Maus is the story of one man's journey through the maze of Hitler's Europe. By using the unconventional technique of a graphic novel, Art Spiegelman places the reader in a setting where the descriptive pictures tel a story which no words could parallel. The story of Vladek's journey captures the reader, and as a result Maus is an easy read.
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Summary: Not your average comic book!!
Review: In Maus I and Maus II, Art Spiegelman takes an innovative and creative approach to telling a story that many know all to well. Maus is the story of one man's journey through the maze of Hitler's journey. By using the unconventional technique of the graphic novel, Art Spiegelman places the reader in a setting where the descriptive pictures tell a story which no words could parallel. The story of Vladek's journey captures the reader, and as a result Maus is an easy read.
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Summary: A masterpiece on many levels
Review: The reality of this book seeps out between concepts. It is and is not 'a holocaust book'. It is and is not 'a memoir'. It is and is not 'a biography.' It very much reminds me of my wife's uncle telling me about things that happened to him in the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War, and stories my uncle told about his experiences in France during 1944. Memories may sometimes lie in a tangled web at the bottom of a man's mind, but they possess a life of their own once awakened. This work is an exploration of dark times as remembered by a man (Spiegelman's father) who is no saint. In other words, he's an ideosyncratic individual caught in a web so big he often has trouble understanding it. But like most of us lost on the bottom rungs of history, he applies his intelligence and creativity to survive horrors -- and plainly realizes that luck had much more to do with his survival than any personal quality. Art Spiegfelman's exasperation with his father is as carefully recorded as are his father's recollection. (Anyone close to a 'difficult' family member knows how uncomfortable a mixture of irritation and love is!). This book is not about anything else than truth, the unpleasant and tedious search for the real underneath daily details of life. This work is simultaneously: reportage, documentary, memoir, oral history, psychological drama, adventure story, tragedy, and poem. It succeeds on every level. -- It's a pity every high school does not include this work in its literature courses, not because it is about Nazis and Jews, nor because it is about the Holocaust. It should be included because it is a masterpiece; that simply means if they never read it they will be (slightly) crippled for never having read it.
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Summary: A story about surviving the survivors
Review: About the strain which inhuman events put on fragile human bonds. This (I refer to I and II together) is as much a story about father-and-son as it is about life in the camps. The book touches on the narrow-mindedness which we all recognize in our fathers, but never in ourselves. The cartoon format slips smoothly between past and present, old and young, juxtaposed alongside real images. (I have never read a novel in cartoon form, and now I am hooked.)
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Summary: No Doubt What 'Schweine" Means
Review: Perhaps Spiegelman's choice of pigs to represent Poles is innocent. However, there is not doubt what the Germans meant when they used the epithet "Schweine" (swine) for the subjugated Poles. To the extent that Spiegelman is copying the Germans' vocabulary, he is taking part in their mentality. If, however, the choice of pigs is meant to imply that the Poles were well-fed, then this is an utter travesty of history. Fact is that, while Poles were better off than the Jews, it was not by much. The Poles under German occupation had very little to eat compared with the French, Belgians, etc., under German occupation. And, by showing Poles killing Jews who returned for their property, he is distorting events by depicting something as normal that happened to perhaps several hundred Jews out of some 200,000 who likewise came to reclaim their property without incident. In any case, the anti-Polish slant is rather obvious.
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Summary: A Very Un-PC Triumph
Review: The very fact that this book has offended many people with its depiction of different races as different animals, to me, makes it even more deserving of praise. Face it: racism exists, and "Maus" offers a very telling look into how humans are affected by it. If anyone doubts this, they need only to look at Vladek Spiegelman himself who, even after enduring the ultimate form of racist horror during the Holocaust, is worried that a hitchhiking "shvartser" (African American) might steal his groceries. Trying to cover up humanity's fondness of racism and stereotype with politically correct garbage is not the answer, and I applaud Art Spiegelman for approaching the issue in an honest and sometimes humourous fashion.
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