Maus

What made the graphic novel Maus so memorable to me was its honesty. What stood out to me immediately was how natural the dialogue was. It even captured Vladek's unique way of speaking and felt authentic, like I could really hear him speaking to me. I wondered how the Art was able to do this. Then I got to the part where Art was shown using a tape recorder. I feel like it should've been obvious to me, but for some reason I thought Art's memories and note taking were so well done that he could remember exactly what his father said. I wonder if other graphic novelists have used this technique of recording conversations and using it as dialogue in their books. It would certainly be easier to do today with the ability to record someone immediately with your phone.

There are parts of the book that were most likely embellished by Art and not recorded, such as the fourth wall breaking part where he and his wife are speaking about whether she should be portrayed as a frog or a mouse, and the parts where he is hounded by reporters about what he is going to do now that the first Maus was such a success. This still contributes to the sincerity of the book, though, because Art was being honest about the emotions he was going through. It was surreal to be able to hear an author's thoughts on the book they are writing as you are reading it. I especially admired that Art was willing to depict not only his father's bravery, but his flaws as well. He voiced his own fears about depicting his father as a miserly Jewish stereotype, or as someone with prejudices against other races, but still put these details in the book anyway. It made the book feel all the more relatable. Even though I'm not Jewish, I could relate to struggling to connect with an older relative, and struggling to wrap your head around their past trauma.