Well, it’s taken a while, but my very own copy of Maus, subtitled A Survivor’s Tale, has finally arrived. I understand the work was originally published in two parts, I believe subtitled My Father Bleeds History (1986) and  And Here My Troubles Began (1992), respectively.

As you’re probably all aware, in early January, a country school board in Tennessee removed the book from its curriculum, allegedly for reasons of content and age appropriateness.

Given this is the only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize, I decided this was clearly a book I needed to read for myself and make up my own mind about the merits, or otherwise, of the school board’s position. Unlike one member of the board who “…stated that he had not “seen the book [or] read the whole book,” instead admitting that he’d only “read the reviews.” “ (Source: “Banned by Tennessee School Board, ‘Maus’ Soars to the Top of Bestseller Charts”, McGreevy, N., Smithsonian Magazine, February 2, 2022.)

The Smithsonian Magazine article summarises the content of Maus, as well as the recent controversy, but here’s the GoodReads summary as well:

“…the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler’s Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival – and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents. A contemporary classic of immeasurable significance.“

I shall share my own Maus experience here soon.