Book Review: MAUS - A SURVIVOR'S TALE (Vol. 2: And Here My Troubles Began) by Art Spiegelman

Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If Volume I brings tears to the reader's eyes, Volume II shatters one's faith in humanity. Or at least, that's how I imagine the effect would be, if this was given to a child and not processed properly by the adults around her.

This is the darker sequel to the "My Father Bled History." In "And Here My Troubles Began," Art Spiegelman continues his account of how his parents survived Auschwitz and Birkenau, and in the process, winning the Pulitzer in 1992 (the first ever graphic novel to do so)!

There is something terribly stark about the black and white illustrations, matching the unsentimental way the story progresses. This is harsh truth, with humans drawn as animals so as not to drive the reader mad from grief. It's the statistics and the details that get you... The description of the bodies pulled from the Zyklon B showers. The accounts of family members surviving the death camps, only to be killed by the Poles who had squatted on their land upon their return. This book come with the strongest trigger warnings, as some panels were honestly so disturbing, even to this adult viewer, that I had to put down the book for several minutes to calm myself down!

The trauma of the war affects even the artist, Art Spiegelman, who draws his attempts to get his father talking about his war experiences, as well as what it's like to live with someone who, in many ways, didn't survive Auschwitz wholly human.

In one of the haunting panels, Art sees his psychiatrist (who is also a Holocaust death camp survivor), and talks about his dad.

Shrink: "Then you think it's admirable to survive. Does that mean it's NOT admirable to NOT survive?"
Art: "Whoosh. I think I see what you mean. It's as if life equals winning, so death equals losing."
Shrink: "Yes, Life always takes the side of life, and somehow the victims are blamed. But it wasn't the BEST people who survived, nor did the best ones die. It was RANDOM! ... Look at how many books have already been written about the Holocaust. What's the point? People haven't changed... Maybe they need a newer, bigger Holocaust."

Perhaps human nature doesn't change, but this shows the importance of story-telling, and why we need to keep telling and sharing even these difficult stories, if there's even a hope for us to avoid a repeat of this state-sponsored genocide.

There are books we read out of desire, then there are those we read out of necessity.

MAUS demands to be read. MORE people need to read it, and thanks to the book ban, it is once again very much in the public's eye.

To read MAUS is to defy censorship and the whitewashing of history. It remains for us adults to make sure that our children do not read this too early, but read it they must (this teacher recommends they do so in high school). For to deny the past is to deny all lessons learned from it.

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