Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

After reading Maus I earlier this month, I knew that I had to read Maus II in short order. I was immediately drawn into Spiegelman's account of his father's Holocaust experience and I wanted to see how the story ended. The novel also satisfied the "story within a story" category in my Popsugar reading challenge, because the novel is framed as Artie, the cartoonist, looking after his father while interviewing him about his survivor story. This was one of the categories that I thought might be tough to figure out, so everything lined up perfectly.

Maus II picks up right where the first volume in the series left off, with Spiegelman's father Vladek and his wife Anja being captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. Vladek winds up being separated from his wife right away and sent to the men's area of the camp. His cleverness and determination to survive lead him through a series of coveted jobs. He secures work as a translator, tinsmith, and shoe repairman - all positions that allowed him to access extra food and clothing, which he would use to barter or send to Anja, keeping them both alive. Life inside Auschwitz is difficult and horrific. Vladek sees terrible things. However, his intelligence and more than a bit of good luck manage to carry both him and Anja through. As the end of the war approaches, both are able to get out of the camp and reunite back in Poland.

Interwoven with Vladek's story are the moments back in the present that show his son interviewing him. Artie's relationship with his father is complicated. He loves him, of course, but he also struggles to deal with his eccentricities. Vladek is elderly, in poor health, quite miserly with money, has no qualms about resorting to emotional blackmail to control his son, and is just plain embarrassing a lot of the time. Artie feels guilty for his less-than-charitable thoughts towards his father, because a lot of his irrational behavior is likely due to his experiences in the war. He also feels some survivor's guilt because he didn't have to go through any real hardships in his life. It was interesting to watch him try to sort through his emotions towards his father while interviewing him.

Maus II carries on with the same art style as Maus I, with Jewish characters drawn as mice, Nazis as cats, and most others as pigs. The cartoons are simple and effective; the contrast between the innocent-looking animals and the horrific subject matter creates a poignant tone. Vladek's narration is a similar mix of simplicity and emotion. As he recounts his story, he casually drops in short sentences like, "I never saw him again" or "the Nazis finished him." His words show the cheapness of human life in a concentration camp, and make for an unsettling reading experience.

One particularly intriguing element of this novel for me was watching Vladek scheme and make deals inside Auschwitz. In order to stay alive in a place like that, one had to be very street smart. Bartering, making the right connections, knowing when to share versus when to save things for yourself, and being a convincing liar were vital survival skills. Even then, luck played a huge part of whether you lived or died. Vladek was good enough at playing the game to save both his wife and himself. His courage and determination were incredible. I would not have been so brave if I were in his place, and I found his actions admirable and fascinating. I hadn't thought of concentration camp life in this way before. I feel like I learned something new.

While the whole of Maus II is excellent, there is one particular moment in the novel that stands out to me. Towards the end, Vladek mentions to Artie that he had a picture taken of himself in a concentration camp uniform after he escaped. He shows it to his son. Instead of making this picture into a drawing of a mouse, Spiegelman includes the actual photograph. Seeing Vladek's real face in the striped outfit felt like a punch to the gut. I was so used to seeing the mice, that seeing that one photo was a shock. It served as a powerful reminder that there were human faces behind all the whiskers in the book, and they suffered on a scale beyond what most of us could ever imagine.

Now that I've read the complete story, I think that I enjoyed Maus II even more than Maus I. Both volumes are tremendous, and should be required reading for those learning about the Holocaust. I'm very grateful that my Popsugar challenge pushed me to read this series. They have left quite an impression on my heart and they won't be leaving my thoughts anytime soon.   


Challenge Tally
Popsugar Challenge: (A book that is a story within a story) 15/40