This is my first review of a graphic so bear with me as I'm not sure if I have the hang of this reviewing thing yet. Maus is the story of Art's own father Vladek's experience and survival of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. It's hard to explain the feeling you get when you read about such horrors. It's for want of a better word gut wrenching. I thought the effect would be lessened by the fact that the Jews are depicted as mice and the Nazis as cats but it really wasn't and it somehow made it even more upsetting.
That awful feeling washes over you when you read something like this the one when everything feels strange and wrong and you can feel the cold crawling over your skin. Then the tears arrive try as you might to keep the watery substance from leaking out of your eye sockets it inevitably becomes too much. In all fairness you would have to be made of stone to not be upset by the Holocaust.
All the dialogue is written in the way his father spoke which was a lovely touch as it added to the reading experience you could almost hear Vladek's accent as you read. Art's relationship with his father isn't all sunshine and rainbows either his father is a hard person to deal with but it's apparent that they loved each other none the less. I like how he didn't make his father or their relationship look perfect he showed himself and his father flaws and all. That was very brave and truthful of him and if I'm honest makes it a more enjoyable read. He also doesn't depict his father as a victim although he undoubtedly was but instead he comes across as much more, as a survivor someone who did everything and anything he could to survive, someone who was resourceful and extremely lucky at times. He wasn't always a likable person but you still felt for him. I would have liked to have read his mothers Anja's point of view too but alas that was not meant to be.
Overall this is very personal book about how a man and his wife survived all odds despite horrific circumstances and found one another again. I really can't speak highly enough of this book. It is probably one of the most honest and personal accounts of the Holocaust I have ever read.
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