The Complete Maus: Art Spiegelman

Image Credit: nexternal

A review has long been on the anvil but I didn’t get time until now to actually pen my thoughts. I had finished reading The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman around two weeks ago but with a new job and Mandarin classes, things got a bit busy. But Maus is not a book that’s easy to forget. This Pulitzer Prize winning book is the story of the author’s father, a Holocaust survivor, who recounts his experiences. Here is the summary from the book jacket –

It is the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity…

There are many things to love in Maus. First of all it has multiple stories within it. Apart from the obvious war theme, Maus is an exploration into the human psyche. The will to survive and the inclination to kill and feelings of guilt and anger within oneself that bubble over threatening to burst but many times never do. It also examines relationships – between father and son, mother and son, Jews and non-Jews, prisoners and im-prisoners and just between stranger and stranger. Human behavior is as much a theme as the Holocaust.

Vladek’s behavior for one, is forever changed by the war. At one point he tells Art,

“Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t obsessed with this stuff…it’s just that sometimes I fantasize Zyklon B (the gas that the Nazis used) coming out of our shower instead of water.”

Even otherwise a careful man, the war tilts this quality in him to the other extreme. He hesitates to spend money to get the chimney cleaned, preferring to do it himself, did not buy his new wife some new clothes and would not even throw out a broken plate instead gluing it back. The fear of being hungry and penniless had gotten through to his soul, creating a well there that would never be filled.

While recounting his father’s experiences, Spiegelman also elaborates on his own experiences while staying with his father. Their incompatibility is a big irritant for Spiegelman who feels suffocated. He is not a bad son but he cannot relate to his father’s penurious actions, which makes him frustrated. Spiegelman also voices his own self-doubts while writing the book. “I feel so inadequate trying to reconstruct a reality that was worse than my darkest dreams. And trying to do it as a comic strip!...Maybe I ought to forget the whole thing.”

Most interesting of all, Spiegelman answers an interesting question perhaps we all have asked ourselves. Why didn’t the Jews fight back? They had numbers, solidarity and the united will to escape. Spiegelman’s father says that it was not easy.

“Everyone was so starving and frightened, and tired they couldn’t believe even what’s in front of their eyes. And the Jews lived always with hope. They hoped the Russians can come before the German bullet arrived from the gun into their head…In some spots people did fight… But you can kill maybe one German before they kill fast a hundred from you.”

Spiegelman’s writing style is of course quite simple and the narrative is needless to say extremely interesting. This is the graphic novel at one of its most powerful bests that takes the proverbial cat and mouse game to a whole new level. A game not to be missed. Last but not the least, thanks to fellow blogger Vishy for lending me this amazing book.

Verdict: Gripping. Insightful. Interesting.

Rating: 5/5

Chinese Whispers : Hsiao-Hung Pai

Image Credit: Borders

After a long time, I picked up a book that didn't come from the library, but from my shelf. There was this wonderful sale at Landmark, my favorite book store, and I bought Chinese Whispers by Hsiao-Hung Pai for practically free, at almost 90% off its original sale price.

Having spent a few years in China and interacted with many of today's young Chinese, I know that one overarching ambition for many of them is to make money. Yes, who wouldn't want to? But in the world's fastest growing economy, despite the grand GDP figures that might make Greece or Italy hang its head in shame, there is a virulent undercurrent of resentment. The rich are getting richer, but the poor are getting poorer. Jobs are scarce - and competition is fierce. To many of them, the U.S. or the U.K or anywhere else represents the ultimate materialistic dream. Surely, one thinks, a few years of working there, bringing in the pounds or dollars, might be worth 40 years of slaving here? That's what draws many an illegal immigrant to these countries. And it is this statusless community which Hsiao-Hung Pai investigates. Chinese Whispers is investigative journalism at its very best. Think about the waiter who serves you in your favorite Chinatown restaurant, Pai asks. Have you ever thought of them? Many of them are without working status in that country; many of them are deeply in debt, having paid hundreds of thousands of RMB to pay their way to these promised land. And now they are trapped. The government wants nothing to do with them. And at home, they have mouths to feed. It's this stark uneasy world that Hsiao-Hung Pai presents.

This is not an easy read. I learned how Chinese migrants are systematically exploited, forced to work long hours for wages less than the prescribed minimum wage. Many of them suffer from a system that keeps them faceless. They have no access to medical care, and lead lives of unimaginable struggle with their only wish being to keep their families back in China happy. We all hear stories of sweatshops and inhuman working conditions regularly appearing in Western media - these sweatshops of course, are in China. What though about Britain's own secret underbelly? Who would think that a supposed First World country allows "massage parlors" to flourish? Who would think that it turns a blind eye to people who work in the freezing cold picking lettuces for less than 2 pounds an hour? I admire Hsiao-Hung Pai who many times went undercover to research this book. Chinese Whispers is a powerful read. It deserves to be read for really, we owe to these people. It's the very least we can do.

Verdict: A must read. Powerful and haunting.


Rating: 4/5

World Without End : Ken Follett

Image Credit: Pilethemon

The title of this book is rather apt. World Without End. I felt while reading this was a Book Without End. Phew, after 1237 pages, perhaps, you dear reader would not chastise this reviewer for feeling so. There are so many reasons why we read but there are days when I can go without reading. Usually, when my mind is not at rest, as it has been the past one month, then I find reading to be a chore. Reading is a mental activity that is not all-consuming - it's not like a movie where you can forget the world outside. Reading is an intellectual activity, one that demands your mind, heart and soul - and when the three are not in tandem then the act of reading becomes a disjointed one. Which is why I struggled to finish any book that I picked up, including John Banville's The Sea, which fellow blogger Vishy urged me to read, but sadly which I had to leave temporarily. And then, I tried Jo from Bibliojunkie's recommendation, Yiyun Li's The Vagrants, only to return it to the library half-read.

And then, frightened that I was losing touch with reading, I turned to Ken Follett's World Without End. This was the author whose book, Fall of Giants was the first I read this year. I had enjoyed that book, and expected that a book that moves fairly fast, doesn't require you to concentrate hard would probably push me back into the reading habit. It did fulfill all those expectations. It is massive - but Follett can spin a good story, not one that will make you cry, but one that will keep you sufficiently intrigued to want you to keep turning the pages.

Set in the cathedral city of Kingsbridge, in 13th century England, I was immediately taken into a world of manipulation, deceit and politics - all within the sacred walls of the cathedral. Set against this, Folllet presents a long-drawn out love affair between Merthin, the town's most famous builder and Caris, once a dyer, then a nun and then the town's saint-in-chief as their unofficial medicine woman. I have no idea if the historical details are even remotely accurate, I really couldn't care to be honest, but it did present an interesting picture of life then. And I thought to myself that if it were true, nothing much has changed anyway. Men and women plot, scheme, manipulate and woo to achieve their dreams. Men and women will still kill for money, honor and glory. Men and women will continue to fight the ravages of illnesses and find Life's overarching angel Death always at hand.

I read too that this is supposed to be a sequel to Follett's most famous work, Pillars of the Earth. I haven't read that yet, although I may be tempted to. But World Without End can safely be read as a stand-alone work too. Would I recommend it? Yes. It's readable. It helped this brain-dead reviewer to regain her reading habit. And as a work of historical fiction, it's fairly engrossing. My quibbles? The length. Oh gawd...over 1000 pages? I skipped many passages, especially ones that went into great detail about scaffolding for churches and arches for bridges. The dialogue - well Follett makes no attempt to provide his readers with the kind of English that was spoken in the 13th century. I assume though that would probably detract from the readability of the novel itself.

I have been lax in commenting on other blogs/reviews. I promise to be back, reading all your reviews soon.


Verdict: Readable fare 


Rating: 2.5/5