The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman

In The Complete Maus, Art Spiegelman tells not just his mother's and father's story but the story of all Jews in World War II Poland. The Complete Maus is the story of the Holocaust.

In a break-through way, he tells this story in the form of a graphic novel. I was amazed not just with how approachable this made the horrible story of the Holocaust, but also with how appropriate it was. The story of the Holocaust is not an easy story to tell. By telling his father's story from the perspective of a son watching his father and via a graphic medium, Spiegelman captured the effects of the events on his father. As a reader, I could see the aftermath of the story because Spiegelman had captured the emotions in the illustrations. The Complete Maus is an essential story in the body of work about the Holocaust and rightly deserves the special Pulitzer Prize awarded it in 1992. It is a book anyone, even those who don't consider themselves readers, can approach to learn about the Holocaust.

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

While I loved reading Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood, I was not as impressed with Marjane Satrapi's continued memoir, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. Part of the problem was that while I liked the young girl striving to find herself, I no longer liked the angst-ridden teenager narrating the story of her foolish mistakes.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

I joined the challenge a few months ago and I've already read a few things, the three my library had. Now that I can post on this blog, I'll post them here. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm new to the medium of graphic novels.

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis:The Story of a Childhood was a delightful but heartbreaking memoir of a girl coming of age during the Iranian revolution and war, 1979-1983. Marji is just 10 when the Shah is overthrown and Iran is transformed into an Islamic state. Marji suddenly must wear a veil and hide her sneakers, which are too “Western.”

While there is nothing humorous about war, torture, and murder, Marji’s memoir of her experiences during this time is full of subtle humor.