Maus II

This week we were to read the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. Unfortunately I was unable to find the first book, however I did locate the second one Mause II. This is the visual biography of his father's capture in 1944 by the Nazi troops. This book begins with his father and mother, both Polish Jews, caught trying to flee and now placed into Auschwitz. Well... That's not exactly where it starts. There are also sections where we cut back to Art's life where he is planning how to make the graphic novel. I've just realized how awestruck I am by this novel. The author jumps in and out of time from present to past to past-present. The style for the current time, where he is writing this novel I think I like the most. He takes the characters out of their anthropomorphic designs and makes them people with animal masks on. It shows how overwhelmed he is with the pressure of the media on him due to the popularity of Maus I. It also seems more of a jaded choice. Like he really wants to get out of the context, out of the book, and shows this by how out of style the people are drawn. Just barely in cohesion with the rest of the book by giving them these animal masks. He also depicts himself as a small child at this section. Overwhelmed by the attention and the weight of his father's death and the subject matter he is writing about.

The author also has breaks from his father's recollections about Auschwitz to break into more modern tales about his father and trying to collect his memoirs. It's a very necessary break from the overwhelming devastation that are his recollections of the death camp. In all honesty I can't fathom how little I actually knew about this subject till now. In school they tell you about it and that a lot of people died and some of the methods how. But it doesn't really hit you until you really hear about it from some one that was there, and even then it's not the complete story.

The end of this novel was very abrupt. At first I thought that there was to be a part three, but rereading the last few pages I realize this is the end of the story. It's the last few discussions he had with his father about the holocaust. He found out how his father and mother found each other, a good ending point. Clearly not the end of the story, but his father passing would explain the suddenness of it. I really need to read Maus I now to find out the rest of this story.