When you hear the words "comic book" and "holocaust" used to describe the same piece of literature, your brain must feel quite a shock. The two terms sound impossibly contradictory. In the case of Artie Spiegelman's magnum opus, however, they are brought together in a way unlike any other graphic novel on the scene today.
As much a personal as a professional work, Maus tells the story of Spiegelman's parents and their communities in war-torn Europe under the Nazi regime, their survival through the concentration camps and later, Artie's often difficult relationship with his (for lack of a better term) eccentric and aging father.
Rather than a direct narrative, the time line flip-flops between the chronicle of the Holocaust and Spiegelman's own writing of the story (Spiegelman himself is featured as an active character).
The most distinctive feature of Maus is its powerful visual symbolism. The various ethnic and cultural groups are represented as animals: the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, the Poles as pigs and so on. Some might think that this would detract from the powerful emotion present in such a significant topic, but I think, if anything, it greatly increases the impact of a remarkable story of faith and survival.
