The book was in very good condition and it came in very fast, within one week.

Maus is one of the captivating page turners I've every laid eyes upon. The story is Art Spiegelman the author writing his fathers tale and what exactly was involved in surviving the holocaust.

Art Spiegelman's critically-acclaimed graphic novel chronicles both his father Vladek's misadventures in Hitler's Europe and a rocky relationship between father and son. Depicting the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice (and the Polish as pigs, a hot-button topic in an already controversial piece), Spiegelman's illustrations actually gives "Maus" the type of appeal that couldn't be achieved in any other medium except this one, as well as lure readers who wouldn't have picked up the comic otherwise. The story itself reels you in but "Prisoner on the Hell Planet," Spiegelman's comic-within-a-comic about his late mother, offers even more insight on Spiegelman and his family history despite its contrast with the main story. This is truly the stuff survival stories are made of.

This comic is unrated: Violence, Adult Language, Adult Situations.

I really thought that in this point in my life I had learned all there was to know about the Holocaust. I've been to the museums, seen the movies, seen survivors speak, and studied the awful events in school. I didn't expect to gain a new sense of understanding from this survivors tale.

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History was a shocking, at times truly disturbing account of a family trying to survive day to day during the Holocaust. This is not a cut and dry tale, it is artfully told through a graphic novel.

I went into this novel wondering "why mice?". As you can see from the cover, the center of the swastika is a cat face. Art Spiegelman has used symbolism to portray a cat and mouse game. The jews are all mice, forever foraging for food and shelter, trying to outsmart the cats that want noting more than to destroy them. The use of this idea in his artwork makes the novel that much more interesting.

I imagine that I could learn something new each time I read this book. There is so much depth, and raw descriptions of what occurred to the authors father and his family. It goes one step deeper in showing how it has affected their lives beyond their time struggling to survive the Holocaust.

A powerful and deeply affecting graphic novel that is an absolute must read.

When I was eight years old, this book was included in a Scholastic book order through my school. I was fascinated by WWII at the time, and had every kids book on it, so of course I wanted this one. I had no idea I was ordering a comic book, and when I finally held it in my hands I was mad that it was - up until that point, to me comic books were all shoot 'em ups and superheroes. This book proved me wrong, and started a lifelong love of comics. I'm now in college studying sequential art and plan on going to the field, so you can appreciate how much of a difference this book made to me.

The overall Maus story is a back and forth between the present events of a young Jewish man and his difficult elderly father, and the father's life in WWII as a Jew. This first book - My Father Bleeds History - focuses on the family's relatively normal upscale life diminishing into their eventual going into hiding at the end of the book. It's a side that isn't as commonly told: the diminishing rights, the daily strain, the rumours of the horrible things that were going on, and even his life as a prisoner of war. These stories aren't as well-told in the media, and I really liked seeing them. As someone who was already well-versed in WWII history reading this, it helped me understand better how people could not realise what was actually going on, and that daily life still must continue in horrible situations.

The art is stark, with thick black lines and a very sketchy feeling to it - this is very fitting for the dark story being told. Visually it's a little busy, and during my first reads I remember being occasionally confused and having to reread pages. Nothing too unforgivable or difficult, however!

Like most graphic novels - it's a fairly quick read, it took me about two days to read it as a child, but now I can zip through them back to back in an hour or two. Yet they reread very well; I pick it up several times a year and my copy is quite well-worn.

I would also recommend this to anyone with an appreciation for historical fiction, biographies, memoirs, or those interested in WWII. History is my favourite genre, and I fully believe this book stands strong right against some of the other classics illustrating the picture of that period. This is not only a great graphic novel, this is a great book.

Maus I is the tale of Vladek Spiegelman's journey as the world he knew unraveled before his eyes when the Nazi's over took Poland and spread the Jewish discrimination further and into the life of Vladek and his family. The tale begins as Vladek falls in love with his eventual wife. They have a son, and are a successful family. Vladek owns a factory was even in the military, he seemed to have it all until the Nazi's took it all away. He was forced to wear the star, live in the ghettos, they took everything from the people that they could. The comic book style of the novel only enhances the storyline, and never hinders it. The book has multiple memoirs that describe not only the story of Vladek during the Holocaust, but his life present day and sometimes even the past. Through the eyes of his son Art Spiegelman, the readers see a full spectrum of how the Holocaust not only treated the Jews during World War II while the Nazi's had control of most of Europe. But the story went on to describe the lasting effects that their experiences had on the former prisoners of death camps like Auschwitz. The story of the Spiegelman family was a story Vladek was reluctant to allow Art to tell, but the influence and effects the story has had on the masses is not able to be ignored. Art Spiegelman revolutionized the way to tell this story taking it a step further than the rest who could only use words and he used pictures; pictures and illustrations that left no room for misinterpretation of the extent to which the Nazis took their anti-Semitism. Art and Vladek took part in recording history, a history that cannot be forgotten and helped to change the world.

Art Spiegelman's Maus I, is the first graphic novel of his two part series. Spiegelman undeniably breaks the mold by combining comic style literature and the gruesome topic of the Holocaust. The success of the novel was accompanied by extreme criticism, primarily due to the fact Spiegelman chose to represent human figures as animals. Each race and nationality was allotted a different animal for representation. For instance, the Jews were portrayed to be mice, Germans as cats, Americans were shown as dogs, and people from Poland as pigs. In reality, the representation of the different races and nationalities dissipated feelings of familiarity with the events of the Holocaust. No matter how many pieces of literature you may have read concerning the Holocaust, I can guarantee you this will be refreshingly original. Spiegelman also carried his originality throughout the novel by utilizing two primary narratives. The first of the two is allocated by Art Spiegelman's father, Vladek, an anxious and mildly psychotic victim of the Holocaust. Within this narrative, Vladek retells his account and experiences through a long series of interviews. He begins with his life before the war as a young bachelor, taking his son through his trials at avoiding deportation with his new wife Anja, and concludes Maus I standing at the gates of Auschwitz. The other narrative is presented from Art's perspective, and characterizes the relationship between the two men to be in poor condition. Art also seeks to balance the reader's perception of Vladek. Vladek presents himself to be quite the heroine and notorious man, but Art sees him as nothing of the sort. In this way, the two accounts coincide extremely well to give an accurate view of Vladek and the relationship between the two men. Maus I is characterized by themes of guilt, survival, hope, and misery all at the same time. Even within the first part of Spiegelman's series, the effects of the Holocaust on Vladek are evident. Art was not mistaken when he claimed "my father bleeds history." The memories of the Holocaust were an open wound to Vladek that could never be healed. Maus I is successful in keeping the reader's whole-hearted attention; there is no such thing as a "good stopping point." The uncertainty that Art leaves the reader with at the end of Maus I, concerning the fate of Vladek was more than my patience could handle. Maus II was in my hands no sooner than I read the closing remarks of the first part of the ingenious series by Art Spiegelman.

This is a work of genius. People will still read this book a hundred years from now.

great book, compelling, and entertaining. Was shocked at how much I enjoyed this book. I did not think I would appreciate the graphic genre or learn anything new about the Holocaust. But I did!

Maus is a artistic masterpiece and like any masterpiece, it is from the artist's singular perspective. It does not tell everyone's story, just the storyteller's. The story's horror is amplified by justaposing a comic book format and cartoonish animal characters. If you are distracted or offended by the choice of animals or focus of the story, you are missing the point and are truly welcome to tell your story from your perspective and in your own way. That is the point of being the storyteller. Maus is not meant as an comprehensive account of the Holocaust. Spending a full day at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC will bring you closer to that goal. Another is the 8+ hour 1985 documentary, "Shoah," which is available on DVD on eBay for $17.50 US and should be available on Amazon for about the same amount. Using a simple interview format and no stock footage, you hear incredible stories from Jews and Christians, Poles, Germans, and others, eye witnesses and scholars. You meet evil and good. They tell you what they saw, heard, felt, and did. You see the sites as they are now. Like any good documentary, you draw your own conclusions by the end of the film. Maus is a great work of art designed to make the reader feel something of what it was like for the storyteller, but it is not a documentary. Maus uses facts and impressions to create images that take the reader on an emotional journey to a place where mere words and numbers on a page can never go.

I bought this product and then later found both Maus I and Maus II, together in one book and for the same price, at my school bookstore. I would recommend buying both in one package to save money.

It is a well told story and is worth the read. I would recommend "American Born Chinese" if you like the style of this book.

I've used Maus in my classroom for two years now and it's a wonderful book to introduce students to a serious topic using an easily accessible format. It leads to a nice study of the holocaust, allows students to explore the ideas of discrimination, generational differences and using pictures to share a story.

This was required 7-th grade reading for my daughter, but since it is a sensitive subject, I read the book to together with her. Also, in Massachusetts the state education curriculum doesn't touch world history until 9th grade, so she had no clue what any of the historical references were. Therefore for each page that took 10 seconds to read (it's in comic book format), we probably spent 5 minutes in explanation of what was going on.

Bottom line: if you are familiar with the history of the Holocaust, this book is an interesting take on the subject. If you have not studied WWII, the book will be confusing.

the book is like new and i really surprise when i see the book like this

It was an easy to read book that was very informational and fun to read. I also bought it used from this website and it was in very good condition.

'Maus' is a graphic novel about a Holocaust survivor/victim and his son. This visual imagery evokes more feeling than most traditional books about the Holocaust.

The book deals with the son's anger with his mother for her suicide and towards his dad for his very essence which he must maintain as a 'survivor'. The son can not comprehend what is behind his father's history, yet anger is the most prevalent emotion he directs towards his father.

Jews are portrayed as mice, nazis as cats and Poles as pig. The power of this novel is stupendous. It is one of the earliest graphic novels and, as such, groundbreaking in its genre.

The book was in excellent condition, it took a bit longer to gey here than I thought it would, but it's great condition makes up for that.

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History was my first ever read of a graphic novel and still remains, along with its sequel, the only graphic novel I've read. This sort of thing doesn't interest me, but if it happens to be related with true history, then I am all for it. This time, it is about the Holocaust, a subject that has been widely published for many years and is a common knowledge among educated persons. What makes Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History so unique is the blending of a Holocaust story and the comic strip approach. The result has brought favorable praises, making Art Spiegelman a well-known author. Actually, there is something else about him that most people do not know: he also created the Garbage Pail Kids cards during the 80's. Back to the book, I really liked everything about it; it's painful and interesting at the same time. There is a lot of depression related with the storytelling. After finishing the book, I wanted to go to the sequel right away. There are some negatives about Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History. One is the unnecessary use of profanity words. As I agree that the book is a great education tool for schools (I took a Holocaust class in high school, and the book was part of the class as well as with other books), it would be advisable just to apply the white-outs on the profane words. Two is the grammatical errors throughout the pages. I don't know if you noticed them, but they are sometimes distracting as I was unsure if that's what the author's father really said or something like that. In conclusion, I can put the blame on Art Speigelman for his careless writing. Three is that the author can sometimes make his book go off the topic. It is just a minor complaint. Four is the depiction of the nationalities through choices of animals: Polish = Pigs, Jewish = Mice, French = Frogs, Germans = Cats, etc.). From the negative reviews, I can understand the problem here, and it's a delicate line here because for one, it's ingenuous yet it is offensive. Sometimes, the Polish people are given a racist labeling of their race through the words in the book. Five is that I mostly read the words in the book rather than looking at the pictures since they were bland to my eyes. However, the graphic novel approach makes the book an engaging read for the young students. So, my criticism means nothing in this point of view. Six is the presentation of a daunting idea of survival during the Holocaust. Not many people are skillful when it comes to politics and negotiations. This gives a discouraging message for the less bright or less able people that only the smartest or the most able survives. All in all, Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History is a great book that everybody, as long as they are mature enough, should read.

The story of Maus is an amalgam of one author's troubled relationship with his father, the recounting of the author's father's horrendous experience of living through Nazi occupied Poland during World War II, and the author's struggle to write his father's story. The story begins with Art visiting his father after not seeing him for a few years. The reader is quickly informed that Art's mother committed suicide when he was younger, which adds to the complication of Art's relationship with his father. His father has since remarried a fellow Holocaust survivor. The story focuses on Art asking his father about his life during the holocaust in order to write and illustrate his father's story in the book the audience is currently reading. The book alternates from his father's experiences and time spent with his father. The book goes from tales of how his father met his mother, his involvement in the war, and how they lived prosperously until the beginning of the war, where they would then have to live in horrid conditions to hide from the Nazi's until they are ultimately captured, to the struggles he and his father go through in their strained relationship, while Art asks him about his horrid experience.

The novel is gorgeously illustrated, which entices the reader to read the book further. It is appealing because it is an easy read, and it illustrates what some of the victims of the holocaust endured and suffered. It is great for teenagers because it is an easy read they can enjoy, they can learn about the kind of pain and suffering many had to deal with, and it is a different form of literature which differs from the traditional book that many teenagers refuse to read.

I recommend this book as a creative, profound learning experience and as an entertaining, easy read.

A moving story that is a wonderful mesh of literature and graphic art. 'Maus' recounts the story of an Auschwitz survivor, presenting it in a very unique way with the Jews as mice and the Nazi's as cats (Poles, English and American are also different animals).
Well worth the read, accessible to various age levels.

As an educator, I find this graphic novel incredibly useful both as a tool to help my students comprehend the atrocities of the Holocaust and as a hook to encourage reading outside the classroom. This tale of Vladek Spiegelman, told through the artistic renderings of his son Art, provides a gripping and tragic allegory in which animals are used to represent the different groups involved. The Jews are drawn as mice, the Nazis cats, the Poles pigs, and the Americans dogs. The potential symbolism of this artistic choice alone provides for great classroom discussion and individual thought without even addressing the amazing tale of survival, friendship, and historical significance that Spiegelman conveys.
Another critical point to address is the constant notion of voice that is present throughout this work. Regularly, Spiegelman interrupts the story to move back to panels that include his father, the Spiegelman household, and the often painful relationship between father and son that occur post-Holocaust. Spiegelman provides the reader with visuals that express the idea that one often forgets in the midst of so many staggering death statistics: Once people survived the Holocaust, they had to live with it in their daily lives. We see how difficult it is for Vladek to discuss certain points and how heart-wrenching it must have been to communicate others. The rift that occur between father and son is gradually lessened throughout the novel, but is realistically portrayed: families are ideal, they have problems. This continual inclusion of post-Holocaust Vladek and his life really provides a reality check for the reader and makes this work even more powerful.
Overall, I have used this novel as a supplement to Wiesel's Night and as an independent class assignment and have found great success with it. However, I have been a teacher for 3 years and a reader for many many more, and I think this book has merit outside the classroom as well. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in a great story.

Such a powerful story. It's weird because at first you think, "How can they possibly make a serious story using mice and cats and other animals?" But before you're halfway through, you can help but feel compassion for the people in the story. A really powerful read.

I never knew what the jews genocide suffered through the Holocaust. this book breaks it down. You need to read it. its graphic, shows you the pictures that you actually amagine. you'll never look at the holocaust the same way.WOW!!!

I've read this book, it is amazing. If you like graphic novels that may change your life or way of seeing the world just go ahead and click buy.

How did I get here though, one step away from Rhetoric? I think we are seeing an algorithm jam! Get out on the river and clear this mess up!

I can't say how the book was since it was never sent to me. I requested a review of my account and received not information at all. I would recommend that you not order from this company.

What a great way for a student to learn about the criminal abuse of Jews by the Nazis. The cartoon artwork is excellent. The reader becomes a part of the father/son relationship that is the heart of the storyline.

When I was growing up in the 1980's, I found that Holocaust survivors were either glad to be alive and well, or full of bitterness. Some were eager to tell their stories to the young; others carried the scars deep inside. For many years (perhaps until the 1970's) it was almost taboo for the survivors to talk about what happened. The children of Holocaust survivors have a lot of emotional baggage.
Vadek Spiegelman is one such survivor. He kept himself alive using his great business sense and his "street smarts." He knew when to speak up and when to remain invisible, and used these abilities to help anyone who needed him. In fact he risked his life to save people when even his own relatives turned their backs on him.
But Vladek's survival skills couldn't save everyone. His father, his son, his sister, and countless other relatives didn't survive. You wonder if Vladek feels guilty for not dying. Does he feel ashamed that he kept himself alive while his friends and family were killed?
MAUS is a great book. Writing it as a graphic novel, with illustrations and speech bubbles works wonders for the story. It never matters what the person looks like in a story like this. What matters is how the characters interact.
One thing is for sure; Vladek and his wife Anja went to bed every night with the worst memories, and their son Art is carrying them everywhere he goes.

I'm a long time fan of the political cartoon as art form and as sometimes the most effective means of making a point. Treatises have been written about the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, but there has never been a more effective representation than the contemporary one-panel cartoon showing Hitler and Stalin shaking hands over a dead Pole ("The scum of the earth, I presume," asks Hitler, smiling; "The bloody assasin of the workers I believe," replies Stalin). But "Maus" is the first and only "graphic novel" I've read, though I note that book stores now stock whole sections of the stuff. Surprinsingly enough, this book works as a graphic novel, and is deserving of the special Pulitizer Prize that was awarded for it and its sequel.

The literature of the Holocaust memoirs is rich, and includes the three indisputable masterpieces of Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank. Spiegelman approaches the subject in the unique fashion of the comic strip. He does so because that is his medium and is the best way he can communicate. But is also works well because it allows Spiegelman to weave in his own story and emotional reaction as a child of a Holocaust survivor without distracting from his father's story (and indeed, the two stories reinforce each other). It also works because, as Spiegelman's subtitle reflects, "My Father Bleeds History." The blood is spread all over the page in the form of dark drawings conveying the emotion of the time and the recall and in the form of the brilliant device of capturing the race issue by depicting each ethnic group as a different form of animal.

Nazis as sadistic cats playing with the Jewish mice is just about a perfect image. Americans as dogs (lovable mutts in particular but ones capable of kicking the Nazi cats) is also so on the mark. And what could better convey the perils of masquerading as a non-jew than the mouse walking around Poland with a pig mask? It's silly to suggest that Spiegelman is engaging in race hatred here. The animal device is an illustrative one and is also a wonderful use of irony.

The story of Spiegelman's father is riveting, and the way in which the Nazis slowly engineered his people's segregation and their step-by-step path to destruction is well told. Also affecting are the impossible moral choices faced by the Jews -- Do I hide my son with a seemingly safer set of collaborating parents? Do I trust this smuggler? Do I report for selection or hide out? Stupid criticisms of the Jews as somehow responsible for not protesting enough or for being mere lambs led to the slaughter are exploded in this vivid telling of one man's tale.

Spiegelman is searingly honest about his own relationship with his father and his own conflicting emotions. He's written an unforgettable and affecting memoir.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale is author/illustrator Art Spiegelman's attempt to tell the story of his family as influenced by the Holocaust. This is part 1; part 2 is titled Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. There is also a book that I assume combines both (The Complete Maus).

This is a graphic novel, and a graphic story. In Maus, Spiegelman slowly extracts the story of his father and his mother: how they met, how their lives changed as the Germans and the SS moved into Poland, their methods of survival, and eventually their capture and deportation to Auschwitz. Spiegelman intermixes this tale with his father's behaviors in the present, as a survivor.

The story depicts Jews as rat-like, Poles as pig-like, and Germans as cat-like. Seeing rats hang is not as "graphic" as seeing humans hang; there is a sobering and horrific quotation attributed to Adolf Hitler at the beginning of this book: "The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human." The audacity of this statement is both amazing and incomprehensible. It also resulted in the deaths of so many innocents. Spiegelman uses the animal caricatures as representations of these Hitlerian distinctions.

This is an incomplete story. It doesn't end on page 159, and I assume the story line is picked up again in Maus II.

Spiegelman's story is haunting. You will finish Maus I in a little over an hour, and you will feel the tingling of horror in how humans actually have treated other humans.

Never again.

Maus was a very engaging book. From the beginning I was pulled into the story. Maus is written in a very unique way. Art Spiegelman drew the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, and the Poles as pigs. Art Spiegelman told the story from the perspective of his father telling the story through an interview format. It is written in the form of a graphic novel. It is an interesting way to learn about history during the World War II era. Overall I liked this book, except I really didn't like the end. Also, there was a little bit of language.

i was one of the few among my peers who had never read one of the Maus books. When i finally got around to it, i was blown away by its excellence. This is a masterpiece (and i do not use the term lightly). Do yourself a favor and don't miss it.

I must say that I find this work hard to properly describe in terms of how I feel about it. I think that it was a fascinating look at one man's experience in the Holocaust, but an equally important aspect is Art's interaction with his father during their conversations. This seems like an honest portrayal, especially since Art isn't afraid to include things that may make him look bad (he isn't always the most sympathetic son). I think connecting the story of what happened then, and how it's effects are apparent for the rest of a person's life (although different people reacted in different ways) is interesting. The way this is written is especially effective, because it truly feels like Vladek is telling you his story first hand.
As for the artwork, although it isn't my favorite style, it seems to fit for this story. The simple, unpolished look is compatible with this story which is honest and raw. Finally, I would like to add that the second installment of this comic is darker, and more depressing and sad at times, but once you read Maus I, you must (and will want to) read Maus II in order to feel any closure with the story.

I must say that I find this work hard to properly describe in terms of how I feel about it. I think that it was a fascinating look at one man's experience in the Holocaust, but an equally important aspect is Art's interaction with his father during their conversations. This seems like an honest portrayal, especially since Art isn't afraid to include things that may make him look bad (he isn't always the most sympathetic son). I think connecting the story of what happened then, and how it's effects are apparent for the rest of a person's life (although different people reacted in different ways) is interesting. The way this is written is especially effective, because it truly feels like Vladek is telling you his story first hand.
As for the artwork, although it isn't my favorite style, it seems to fit for this story. The simple, unpolished look is compatible with this story which is honest and raw. Finally, I would like to add that the second installment of this comic is darker, and more depressing and sad at times, but once you read Maus I, you must (and will want to) read Maus II in order to feel any closure with the story.

As a Jew Living in Israel, holocaust related books are important to read, but it's hard to do it actually. I can remember several holocaust-era semi-biographic novels which are great but those are the exceptions. Most of the books are a bit bothersome though true.
Maus just captured me.I consider it one of the best books I've ever read in my life. It was just breath-taking, adding to that the fact that this was my first graphic novel ever, not to say first comic ever.
I gave it to my wife, her parents, brother and so on. The book came back to me after 6 month. all worn out.
The book touched me in the deepest levels, and was able to do what many other holocaust books tried to do and failed. Take you inside one of the the darkest eras of human kind. You NEED to read to. You have to read it.

Maus, A Survivor's Tale is a son's pictorial version of his father's story of survival during WWII.

Both haunting and mesmerizing, sometimes funny and touching, this is a story of perseverance and about what the Jews had to suffer through at the hands of the Nazis in WWII Poland. Spiegleman never sugar-coats what his father had to endure in order to keep he and his wife alive. A true work of art.

Horribly distorts the true suffering of WWII victims. The Poles who are portrayed as pigs and the Jews who are portrayed as RATS is not a good beginning. The Poles and the Jews suffered the most. The Polish Catholics lost 3 million, in what has become known as the Forgotten Holocaust. The Poles lost another 2 Million to Stalins barbaric Gulags. When the Nazis were defeated, the Soviet Communists took over and were more barbaric to the Poles than the Nazis, although both brutally oppressive and cruel to the Polish nation. Maus/Rat, whatever you call it, uses a horrible and untrue depiction of the Poles. The Poles were the first to go to Auschwitz and die. Polish teachers, school children (giggling and playing having no idea what horror awaited them, my God), professors, nuns, priests were the first victims of Auschwits, for the wars first 2 years. Jews were not taken to auschwitz until May of 1942! The Germans had already slaughtered 1 Million Polish Catholics before the Jewish campaign even started! The Poles still defide Hitler saving more Jews than any other country. What makes this more incredible is that, Only in Poland were entire Polish-Catholic families, towns and villages executed for, as little as, handing a Jew an apple. in Denmark, Sweden, Hollannd, Norway, a slap on the hand was given - that's it! These countries, also had some of the most brutal Nazi organizations,.i.e., they collaborated eith the Nazis, as Poland DID NOT! For a true and purely objective learning, and not one man's version, bias or hate towards the tortured Poles, and other nations, read a short but to the point book with tons of info, perfect for Jr, High, High School and Adults: Andrew Hempels" Poland in WORLD WAR II; also Richard lukas' The FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST;Poles Under Nazi Occupation (talks about everyone's suffering); finally, and a great litttle book on Auschwitz with big returns is AUSCHWITZ by Sybille Steinbacher. Steinbacher's book is easy to read and very clear; gets to the point and very objective. These books are so centered and incredibly objective,i.e., no embellishments, just truth and fact. The Rat book is a despicable generalization and distortion of truth. Scholars and Educators: Please, be sensitive and 'Take the bull by the horns.' Enjoy the summer - you.ve earned it.

One (two actually since there are two volumes) of the best submissions about the Holocaust which is designed to reach a broad audience. Maus and Maus II are written in the vernacular, personalizing the experiences of a camp survivor who is interviewed by his son. Excellent supplement to any Holocaust discussion.

When I included this and Perseplos & Maus 2 I was informed that they are not graphic novels and that I could not have one free. AMAZING! Of course after I asked for the distric manager's name/number there was a sudden change of heart BUT NOT a good instore experience from BORDERS at ALL. The GRAPHIC NOVEL is great. Borders are not.

This book is a survivors tale of being a Jew in Nazi Germany. The author tells his father's memories of the horrors of the holocaust. It is written in the form of a comic book. The author uses a metaphor for the people in WW2. The Jews are mice and the Germans are cats. The book talks about the author's father being a succesful person and then being captured by the Germans and finally freed from his POW camp, but forced to live in the Ghettos and hide from the Nazis who want to send them to Austwitch. The book leaves off as he is being shipped to Austwitch (a Nazi Concentation/death Camp).
This is one of the best books I've read about the Jewish experience in Nazi Germany. It's easy to read and surprisingly informative. I would most defenintely recommend this book for someone else to read.

This graphic novel in no way cheapens the magnitude of it's subject. Metaphors are rich and overall a solid read.

In Maus, Art Spiegelman illustrates his father Vladek's story -- of growing up as a Jew in Poland, persecuted and eventually captured and sent to Auschwitz during WWII. While portraying tragedy, Maus manages to have a certain amount of beauty and humor, due partly to the various types of characters being rendered as different animals (e.g. Jews are drawn as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, etc.). Whenever Vladek and his wife attempt to pass as Poles, they are charmingly drawn wearing pig masks. The scenes portraying Art's relationship with his father are touching and feel very authentic. I'm looking forward to reading Maus II.

Maus should be greatly encouraged with approbation. The book displays the crude reality of the Holocaust and World War II in a creative, artistic way that makes the book classic and unique. Having Jews displayed as mice and Nazis as cats, Spiegelman uses much acumen in how the book is laid out and the story told. Even without reading, the graphic art adumbrates the story enough to understand.
Artie is a comic book writer who decides to write meaningful stories instead of useless funny ones, and wishes to interview his father about his experiences during the Holocaust. Vladek willingly tells his story to Artie, who seems unchanged by the troubling information his father is offering him. Throughout the story, Vladek becomes almost an anathema to Artie, and Artie finally finds the hate for his father that was always brewing. Although Artie dislikes his father, his father dislikes himself as well. After the war, life was never the same for Vladek. Having never gotten over his wife's death, and feeling antipathy for his new wife, he seemed to abjure all opportunities to enhance his life and adopted a new, somewhat acerbic personality.
Overall, the story told in Maus is an unforgettable one. It brings about several ineffable issues such as the harshness of World War II and how the Nazis arrogated lives with no right to do so. In addition, how these times were difficult even for the high class. The graphic art in the book ties all of the information together and allows a visual interpretation what the book is saying. Although the story is based on World War II and the Holocaust, it is as much about family issues and hidden hate as it is about history. Throughout the whole experience, Artie and Vladek discover where they truly stand with each other and decide that this deleterious relationship is not worth the trouble any longer.

When hearing the words "Graphic Novel" most people do not think of a moving and inspirational story, yet Maus by Art Spiegelman is just that. Firstly I would recommend this novel for its crafty and meaningful graphics. Various groups, such as the Jewish and German, are depicted as numerous animals. In doing so, the author expresses underlying themes, as one judges another's character by how they look, or their origin. Each picture also conveys the deep feeling in each moment. Frighten and sometimes acerbic faces, give the reader acumen on how the characters feel and are reacting. Also, several depictions of maps and drawings, heightening one's understanding of each setting. The second reason I would recommend the novel is because of the compelling story lines it contains. The first is Vladek's poignant account on how he and his wife survived as the Nazis abrogated their rights. From witnessing friends being hanged, to hiding in attics, the reader gains and insight on personal experiences of the Holocaust. The second is of a strained father and son relationship. As the father ages, the interest and reminiscence of a troubled past becomes their last connection. These assiduous characters are connectable for the reader, and acquire my last approbation. Anyone with a stained relationship or even an experience with isolation, can relate to the feelings and manners of the characters. With evocative graphics, gripping story lines, and relatable characters, Maus is a compelling novel which I highly propose.

The book is adumbrated in the form of a graphic novel, giving a seemingly new perspective on the holocaust. The issue itself is nothing spectactularly new, although it approaches the holocaust in such a way that the most acerbic of events are bearable.
Most simply stated, the visual aid that accompanies the text allows for the reader to fully understand the author's stance, or viewpoint on the touchy issues of the holocaust. One does not need to have any sort of historical acumen, to grasp the concepts and ideas of the story.
The facade, of animals, instead of humans, used by the author also makes the events seem a little less human. However, throughout the novel, the thought doesn't escape your mind, that this was actually happening, to real people.
The reader is also easily captivated by the father-son presentation of the story, as Art (the author), interviews his father. With nothing but acrimony polluting the stories told by his father, a bond is formed between the reader, Art, and his father, as you must approbate anyone who braves these hardships, more specifically, the characters.
Overall, this story makes something new, that has been done so many times. It entertains, as well as informs. However, it isn't something I'd recommend for casual reading, as time must be set aside to truly appreciate the events in this book.

Good seller! Highly recommended for all buyers. My item was timely sent and the condition of the item was as described.

This is as bad, as the 1st Maus: Horribly GRAPHIC, EXREMELY CRUDE and INSENSITIVE to the "OTHER" victims of the holocaust. Spiegleman shows absolutely "no" sympathy or sensitivity to the 3 million Polish-Catholics that were killed by the Germans. Adding insult to injury, he portrays the Poles in a very negative and hurtful manner, when in fact the Poles themselves lost everything. Poles, as well as Jews, lost their homes. Poles, as well as Jews, came home to homes that were piles of rubble. There are so many better vechicles out there to teach about this. This is the last one to use, as it seriously offends many innocent students whose parents and grandparents also suffered, died and lost everything in the Forgotten Holocaust. Better books are: Sybille Steinbacher's "Auschwitz. Steinbachers book gets the job done without all the grusome graphics and vulgar demeaning that is in Maus. Richard Lukas' "The Forgoten Holocaust; Poles Under Nazi-Occupation," and "Did The Children Cry: The suffering of Polish & Jewish children in the holocaust." After reading the latter one by Lukas, you'll never go anywhere near a Maus book again! "Did The Children Cry," will be a wake-up call - unless you are inhumane. Lukas, in both book, talks, OBJECTIVLY about "all" who suffered, without the sick graphics and personal attacks that maus has. Michael Marrus' "The Holocaust in History." Marrus, like Steinbacher and Lukas is controlled, scholarly and informative - Spiegleman is not. These 3 books will explain and teach you something, unlike Maus, that only teaches hateful generalizations through stereotyping and is grusomly graphic. Don't be fooled by the hype. Maus gets an F- for humanity. TEACHERS, PLEASE, BE TEACHERS!

Art Spiegelman's biographical type account of conversations with his father. A Jewish family he talks about the war, nazis, the Holocaust, the events surrounding all of that.

The effects on them later in their lives, and how they feel about it are also elements of this work.

*Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History* is at once the autobiographical tale of an American baby boomer trying to get to know his Holocaust-survivor father and of that father's experiences in and survival of the Holocaust. Spiegelman's audacity in attempting to use a "child's art form" to discuss one of history's greatest atrocities is matched only by the skill, both as a writer and a graphic artist, with which he accomplishes this goal. This groundbreaking graphic novel is definitely deserving of the accolades it has received.

In *Maus,* Spiegelman has demonstrated that comics and cartoons cannot be automatically relegated to the literary ghetto of the Sunday papers. This novel also proves true the old adage that pictures are worth thousands of words. Consider, for example, the cut-away view of the hidden bunker (p. 86) which graphically (in every sense of the term) shows the lengths to which Jews and other untermenschen had to go to hide from the Third Reich. *Maus* is successful not only in terms of its artwork, but also in terms of the stories that it tells. Spiegelman manages to show not only how the evils of the Holocaust unfolded and shaped his father, his late mother, and his new step-mother, but also how those same events shaped the relationship between Vladek Spiegelman and his son Art thirty years later.

At the risk of admitting my aesthetic thick-headedness, I still don't understand why Spiegelman chose to use animals instead of people in this work. Perhaps it is because, as some have suggested, seeing Nazis and Jews as animals allows the reader to drop the mind-stopping question of how humans could treat one another in such inconceivably barbarous ways. Perhaps the use of mice for Jews and cats for Nazis is an allusion to the old phrase about playing cat and mouse, or maybe it is a symbol of the Nazi perception of Jews as vermin. I tend to think Spiegelman's use of mice refers to his father's comment that maybe Artie will grow up to be like that famous cartoonist, "what's his name." After all, "what's his name" became famous through his cartoon mouse character, so why shouldn't Art Spiegelman? Whatever his reasons for the interesting choice to use animals as people, it works.

The power went out and I read almost the entire comic book by candlelight, and then read the remainder in a few days. Never have I read a comic book quite like this, and it was movingly visual and accoustically satisfying.

The power went out and I read almost the entire comic book by candlelight, and then read the remainder in a few days. Never have I read a comic book quite like this, and it was movingly visual and accoustically satisfying.