The Complete MAUS  (English, Paperback, Spiegelman Art)

The Complete Maus is a graphic novel collecting Art Spiegelman's Maus, A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History as well as And Here My Troubles Begin.

Summary of the Book

There are few representations of the Nazi regime which ring with as much truth as Maus. Picture the Nazis as cats, the Jews as mice and the Poles as pigs. Art Spiegelman’s vision of his father’s struggles under the Nazi regime is an apt metaphor which reveals the truly ghastly scenario under the Third Reich. Spiegelman visits his father Vladek who is now married to a woman called Mala in the time since the suicide of Spiegelman’s mother. He informs Vladek that he wants to tell the story of his escape from the Holocaust and his life in Czestochowa. Vladek brushes the effort off in his characteristic style but nevertheless begins telling a story rooted in the mid-1930s. He was a young man who came to marry into a wealthy family. Through his father-in-law’s resources, he moves to Sosnowiec to become a manufacturer. Following the birth of their first son, Richieu, Vladek’s wife Anja breaks down due to postpartum depression. They go to a sanatorium in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. By the time they return home, political and anti-Semitic tensions have already begun to take roots in the country. Vladek is soon drafted just before the invasion. He is soon captured at the front lines and forced into labour as a prisoner of war. The narrative that follows showcases the atrocities of the Nazis and reveals the conditions within the Ghettos. Vladek’s stereotypical nature and Spiegelman’s own reactions to his father’s approaching weakness tell a tale of a son trying to understand a father and the nightmares that he has faced.

About Art Spiegelman

Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev, better known as Art Spiegelman, is an American cartoonist, editor and comics advocate. He has also worked on The Wild Party, Open Me, I'm A Dog, Jack Cole and Plastic Man, In the Shadow of No Towers and Breakdowns.

Spiegelman has won several awards for his work on Maus, including an Eisner Award, a Harvey Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Spiegelman has turned down several offers to adapt Maus for film or television.