Maus by Art Spiegelman (The Complete Maus Vol. 1 & 2) (Re-read)

    I don't normally read graphic novels, but Maus is a special book. Art Spiegelman's relationship with his father reminds me of my own father's relationship with his father, also a Holocaust survivor. Maus really grippingly tells the story of the Holocaust and of interviewing a survivor of the Holocaust, and uses different animals to depict the Germans, Poles, Jews, Americans, etc. The animal metaphor is controversial, but I think it works very well, and is especially useful when depicting Jews (mice), who wear the masks of pigs (Poles) to blend in. 

    I remembered a good amount about the book, but not much since I last read it probably around the age of ten. I specifically recalled a scene early in Volume 1 where Art's father, Vladek, conscripted into the Polish Army, is not shooting at the oncoming Germans, afraid. A Polish NCO comes over, feels the coldness of his rifle, and reprimands him for not shooting. Then he does shoot, kills a German soldier, and when the Germans win the battle and take him prisoner, they shout at him for having a hot barrel, having shot. There was no winning, and I think that was very emblematic maybe not of the precise situation, but the general feeling of living through the Holocaust, when a Jew couldn't really ever make a "correct" choice. 

    Something I didn't remember so much was the information about Anja, Art's mother and Vladek's wife, who took her own life in 1968. That was a really tragic part of the whole book that I'd forgotten. I also took note of how different Vladek's Holocaust experience was than my grandfathers. My grandpa was in a ghetto for almost all of the war, working, while Vladek at times worked, at times faked his papers and pretended to be a Pole, at times was in hiding, and then ended up being sent to Auschwitz. It made me think of how diverse the experiences of the Holocaust could be. Maus is a very sad book, but it's a very beautiful book. It's just very real about difficult relationships between people, difficult choices, and above all love. One of the best books ever.