With this stunning addition to Holocaust literature, the American cartoon strip as a vehicle for nonfantasy content takes an impressive step forward. Like Harvey Pekar in American Splendor (Booklist 82:1174 Ap 15 86), Spiegelman takes his own life for subject matter. But whereas Pekar is a realistic humorist, Spiegelman's forte is grim self-observation. In Maus, he queries his cantankerous father about what it was like to live through the Nazi occupation of Poland and the death camps. So this decidedly unfrivolous comic book is, first, the father's story and, second, the portrayal of the son's edgy relationship with the old man. In physical decline he has a harrowing heart seizure during one of their conversations Vladek Spiegelman seems permanently shocked by his experiences into a personal psychology of hardship. He can give nothing but his story. His son writes and draws it forcefully. He uses a simple iconographic device to evoke the terror of his father's times: the Jews all have mice's heads; the Germans, those of cats. A follow-up volume is forthcoming. RO. 940.53'15 Spiegelman, Vladek Comic books, strips, etc. / Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Poland Biography Comic books, strips, etc. / Holocaust survivors U.S. Biography Comic books, strips, etc. / Spiegelman, Art Comic books, strips, etc. / Children of Holocaust survivors U.S. Biography Comic books, strips, etc. [OCLC] 86-42642

YA Told with chilling realism in an unusual comic-book format, this is more than a tale of surviving the Holocaust. Spiegelman relates the effect of those events on the survivors' later years and upon the lives of the following generation. Each scene opens at the elder Spiegelman's home in Rego Park, N.Y. Art, who was born after the war, is visiting his father, Vladek, to record his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Nazis, portrayed as cats, gradually introduce increasingly repressive measures, until the Jews, drawn as mice, are systematically hunted and herded toward the Final Solution. Vladek saves himself and his wife by a combination of luck and wits, all the time enduring the torment of hunted outcast. The other theme of this book is Art's troubled adjustment to life as he, too, bears the burden of his parents' experiences. This is a complex book. It relates events which young adults, as the future architects of society, must confront, and their interest is sure to be caught by the skillful graphics and suspenseful unfolding of the story. Rita G. Keeler, St. John's School , Houston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.