Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History

by Art Spiegelman | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0394747232 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingerishkigalwing of Salt Lake City, Utah USA on 11/25/2012
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8 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingerishkigalwing from Salt Lake City, Utah USA on Sunday, November 25, 2012
A graphic memoir/biography, the story of Spiegelman's father, a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust. The book is truly remarkable storytelling, that feels very Brechtian to me.

Journal Entry 2 by ETMadrid at -- Somewhere in London 🤷‍♀️ , Greater London United Kingdom on Sunday, November 25, 2012
Hi Erishkigal! Thank you SO much for registering this book and offering it as a replacement for this copy that's got stuck (hopefully not permanently!). So that you don't have to post abroad, I'm rearranging the list (updates to follow here), and now the next person on the list is:

imawinn2
Hayes13
ETMadrid
Janeka
Fifna
Stoepbrak
6of8-----> book is here

Journal Entry 3 by wingerishkigalwing at Salt Lake City, Utah USA on Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Released 11 yrs ago (12/5/2012 UTC) at Salt Lake City, Utah USA

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On the back cover, Umberto Eco states that Maus is a "book that cannot be put down, even to sleep." I disagree, for the very reasons he goes on give for being unable to set it down: "When two of the mice speak of love, you are moved, when they suffer, you weep."
Even though I have read this before, it becomes so intense, I feel the suffering so deeply, that at times I had to set it it down and leave it for a while before I could continue. Whew! I had forgotten just how powerful it is; no wonder it received a Pulitzer!

I'm sending this off now to imawinn2, so that the bookring started by MaryZee ( and continued by ETMadrid) can continue, and others have the opportunity to read this phenomenal book. And I've already put Maus II on hold at the library, so I can finish the story;p

Journal Entry 4 by imawinn2 at Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
I want to thank you so much for offering this replacement copy of Maus. I have been waiting a long time to read this and was so disappointed when the previous copy was lost. I am about done reading a bookray book right now and then I will dive into this one. Several members of my family were eying Maus up and thought it looked interesting. I told them that we have 30 days to read it. I imagine there will be several bookmarks moving about its pages as we share the book.

Journal Entry 5 by imawinn2 at Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Sunday, December 16, 2012
Aside from a cursory glance through my teenager's Japanese graphic novels, I have never had much interest in this type of reading material. I felt I had outgrown "comic books" for the most part. That was until I heard about Maus. The whole concept of Art Spiegleman passing on his father's Holocaust experience and their tenuous father/son relationship via cartoon style was intriguing to me. Based on other reviews, I expected this book to be good but as soon as I got a few pages into the story, I found I loved it. I read it in one day! It is a heart-wrenching tale told in Vladek Spiegleman's (Art's father) own words with characters drawn as cats, mice and pigs. Nazi Germans, depicted as predatory cats, use to refer to the Jews as "vermin" and the Poles as "swine" and that is what inspired Mr. Spiegleman choose these particular animals for his remarkable book. I can't wait to get my hands on Maus II which is a continuation of Vladek's Speigleman's horrific life's story.

My two daughter's and husband also want to read this so I will hang on to the book a bit longer. Thanks again for sharing Ershkigal!

Journal Entry 6 by imawinn2 at Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Friday, January 18, 2013

Released 11 yrs ago (1/18/2013 UTC) at Neenah, Wisconsin USA

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Finally have a chance to get over to the post office. Sending this off to Hayes13. Happy Journey! Happy Reading!

Journal Entry 7 by Hayes13 at Roma, Lazio Italy on Thursday, January 31, 2013
Arrived today. Thank you Erishkigal for getting this ring on its way again. I can't wait to read it.
Thank you imawinn for sending it all the way here. And thank you too for your lovely note.

We are getting just the first glimpse of the possibility of spring here. It's still cold and humid, but the sun was a little warmer and the light has changed... the mimosas will be blooming soon and after that the other flowering trees.

Journal Entry 8 by Hayes13 at Roma, Lazio Italy on Friday, March 1, 2013
I still have it! I'm reading it now, promise...
My life has been chaos the last few weeks.

Journal Entry 9 by Hayes13 at Roma, Lazio Italy on Sunday, December 15, 2013
Here I am after all this time... work and life got in the way. I was convinced that I had mailed it out, but alas... I found it here, and I am soooo sorry... This was a replacement copy too, and then I go and hold things up. *blush* **double blush**
I am sending a message now to ET Madrid and will mail it out as soon as I have her address... promise this time.


Journal Entry 10 by Hayes13 at -- Somewhere in London 🤷‍♀️ , Greater London United Kingdom on Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (12/17/2013 UTC) at -- Somewhere in London 🤷‍♀️ , Greater London United Kingdom

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Hello Happy Readers!!

Much happier now that I have finally mailed the book, too...
it went into the mail today. I hope it arrives quickly.

Best wishes to everyone for the holidays
Hayes

It's here - thank you and Happy New Year!

I've just finished this. What an abrupt end! I now really want to read Maus II. It's a great way to present the recollection of very difficult times... I'm not a great comic reader - the last one I read was probably "Barefoot Gen" which really had me weeping.

Hayes13 thank you so much for the lovely bookmark for baby and I! I didn't see it when the book first arrived.

I wanted to read this ever since I heard someone on the radio saying it was their favourite book.

Neither Lydiasbooks nor VictoriaWagtail wish to read this book now so I'm removing them from the list and adding new participants. See above.

Journal Entry 14 by ETMadrid at Bermondsey, Greater London United Kingdom on Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (5/13/2014 UTC) at Bermondsey, Greater London United Kingdom

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Posted at last!

Journal Entry 15 by Janeka at Vila Real, Vila Real Portugal on Thursday, May 29, 2014
I'm so excited to read this book, I've heard amazing things about it! :)

Journal Entry 16 by Janeka at Vila Real, Vila Real Portugal on Monday, June 30, 2014
ETMadrid, thank you so much for sharing this book.
"Maus" is an amazing graphic novel. Despite the fact that it adresses a very-spoken-of sbject, it does it in such a personal way..

A couple of days after I finished this, I found out my hometown library had acquired (only) the second book in the series, so I also read it. AMAZING.

Once again, thank you very much, ETMadrid.
The book is now on it way to Fifna.

Journal Entry 17 by wingFifnawing at Voorburg, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Friday, July 4, 2014
Arrived safely, thanks Janeka!

Journal Entry 18 by wingFifnawing at Voorburg, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Sunday, August 17, 2014
A picture says a thousand words. And that makes what is already such a heart-wrenching story even more powerful. We all know the stories of the Holocaust, but they never get any easier to hear. And so they shouldn't, as it is such a terrible part of history. This book is unique in the way it tells that story, and I'm very glad I read it. Thank you for sharing. I'll look out for Maus II as well.
The book is already on its way to Stoepbrak.

Journal Entry 19 by wingFifnawing at Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa on Sunday, August 17, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (8/11/2014 UTC) at Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa

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On its way to Stoepbrak.

Journal Entry 20 by Stoepbrak at Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa on Friday, September 5, 2014

The book arrived safely in Cape Town. Thanks to Erishkigal for donating the book, and to Fifna for passing it on. I love the postcard!

Thanks also to MaryZee, who started it all with the first incarnation of this bookring, and ETMadrid, who got the bookray back on the rails again.

I should get to reading it soon.

Journal Entry 21 by Stoepbrak at Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa on Sunday, September 7, 2014

My father bleeds history. Indeed.

I've never read something like this before. Part biography, part autobiography, part history, part allegory, part philosophy ... all in cartoon format. And it is primarily in the latter that the book's power lies. As the Newsweek review puts it: "Maus compels us to bear witness in a different way: the very artificiality of its surface makes it possible to imagine the reality beneath." More so because one knows it isn't fiction. It's more than historical fact, even: it is a very personal account of what happened to specific individuals.

Compel is the right word. I couldn't put it down and read the book in one sitting. I hope our library has a copy of Maus II.

Edited 2014-09-10 to add: It did. Quite a few, actually. The sequel had the same impact and quality of the first book. One can only imagine what it took the author to complete this work: an achievement we can only thank him for.

Winner: Pulitzer Special Citation 1992.
Shortlist: National Book Critics Circle Awards: Biographies 1986.

Journal Entry 22 by Stoepbrak at Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa on Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (9/17/2014 UTC) at Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa

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Billbooks asked to be skipped, so the book is on its way to 6of8 in the USA. I posted it this morning, opting for surface mail. Quite often a tracked package like this gets lucky and is included with items dispatched by airmail. Only time will tell.

International tracking number: RJ030694558ZA
http://www.postoffice.co.za/tools/trackandtrace.html
http://www.track-trace.com/post

Sections of the SA postal services are currently on strike, which is likely to cause delays.

Edited 2014-11-16 to add: The strike still hasn't been resolved yet, but with temporary staff some functions could continue, though slower. According to the tracking system, the book left SA shores on 2014-10-22.

Journal Entry 23 by wing6of8wing at Silver Spring, Maryland USA on Saturday, January 3, 2015
Wow! This arrived at my door just now. I had forgotten it was coming.

I have been in a funk with books lately, struggling to get into anything. But since this has traveled so far, I will make an extra effort.

Journal Entry 24 by wing6of8wing at Silver Spring, Maryland USA on Tuesday, January 27, 2015
I am not a reader of graphic novels, but this one I wanted to read since I first heard about it. This is only my second one. Don't know how many more I will read, although I do want to read part II. This was truly a great book, an honest retelling of both the story of one man's experience in the Holocaust and of his relationship years later with his grown son. The conflict, the love, the weird humor, the strangely distant sense of horror and displacement (the Jewish man in disguise doing the Heil Hitler Nazi salute was very disconcerting and somehow wrong, although understandable), all are presented very well in this particular format. It allows a depiction of the type of images we usually cannot bear to look at as photographs but which tell as much about the story as the words themselves. Very powerful.

Journal Entry 25 by wing6of8wing at Silver Spring, Maryland USA on Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Released 9 yrs ago (2/4/2015 UTC) at Silver Spring, Maryland USA

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"A book is a mysterious object, I said, and once it floats out into the world, anything can happen. All kinds of mischief can be caused, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it. For better or worse, it's completely out of your control." -- Paul Auster

This little gem is on its way back home to Erishkigal in SLC.

Journal Entry 26 by wingerishkigalwing at Salt Lake City, Utah USA on Thursday, February 19, 2015
Safely home again~~ and I'm glad you were all able to share this unique book with me!

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