Just finished reading Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman. It is phenomenal, I suggest everyone to go out and buy it immediately. It details how the author's father, Vladek, managed to survive the Holocaust. The book is a graphic work and the author had the very effective and novel idea to metaphorically depict Jews as mice (hense the title) and Germans as cats. The book is very depressing and dismal but is meant to be considering the subject and the honesty with which it is portrayed. Maus has a power that is probably very rare for a comic. It is a very humane, factual rendering of a story that could not be easily told orally, never mind accompanied by such stark and intimate drawings. What I really admire about Maus is that Spiegelman never once embellishes the story for effect. This makes it as relevant a document of the horrors of Nazi Germany as any that exist. As unique a piece of art that has been created in the last few decades.
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