Emergency review this week. A troglodytic school board in Tennessee has banned this 1992 graphic novel. That’s a good reason to remind everyone how brilliant and necessary the book is. The stated cause of the ban: profanity and nudity. The real reason: we’ll leave you to figure it out.
Maus tells the story of Spiegelman’s relationship with his Polish-Jewish father, an Auschwitz survivor. The allegorical characters (Jews are mice, Germans are cats, etc.) and the stark, non-cartoonish artwork make for a chilling portrait of life in an extermination camp and the subsequent survivor guilt for the few who evaded the gas. There’s no gloss and no artifice—and no punches pulled. Nothing is offensive apart from the historical facts themselves. Everyone who has the book should reread it, then send it to the school board in Tennessee, along with heartfelt wishes for tolerance and peace. The book might end up burnt, but who knows? Sometimes people change. Reviewed on Jan. 27, 2022