Meta-Maus - by Art Spiegelman

I read Meta-Maus.

My review as posted to Amazon.com - 5.0 out of 5 stars

This review is from: MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus (Book + DVD-R) (Hardcover)

Will recommend for my University course - at the end of the semester., March 21, 2012

By 

Marty A. Michelson "~ marty alan michelson, p... (OKC, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)  

I first developed a course on Antisemitism and Holocaust/Shoah studies as a University Professor in the 1990s.

Learners have questioned why we read MAUS - "a comic book" - for university work! By the end of the course, nearly every learner knows why. MAUS, with Spiegelman's compelling artistic skill in this graphic novel, discerns the before-during-and-after of holocaust experience in important ways. MAUS explores textures of the story in images that no traditional "type-set-page" can capture.

I recently ordered and received Meta-Maus - and I could not be more delighted with what it does!

The book (and DVD/CD) give answers to many varied questions learners in my course (and I) have had! Meta-Maus gives supplemental biography, details about family matters, explanatory historical issues, explanation of images on multiple pages, personal insight, other images of Spiegelman's other art that frame his maturation as an artist, book reception reviews, copies of draft versions of individual strips of comics, and so much more.

Several reviews on Amazon note the failure of the DVD/CD. My DVD/CD arrived March 2012 and I had no problems on my PC. Regardless, if the DVD/CD had not worked, the book itself is great. Having read it, I would have paid twice the purchase price for the book alone. (Don't tell Pantheon Books, the publisher!)

At this time I do not believe I will use Meta-Maus as a required course-textbook. I will encourage every learner to get Meta-Maus *after* they have read and discerned the nuance of MAUS.

Meta-Maus, in my opinion, should be read only after carefully discerning the complexity and genius and artistic importance of MAUS.

If you did not appreciate or can not discern the complexity, genius, and artistic importance of MAUS, and you hope the DVD/CD will be a "cliff-notes-version" for a quick substitute to engaging MAUS, you have missed out already.

If you appreciate MAUS, I can not conceivably imagine how you could be disappointed with Meta-Maus - the book alone! And the DVD/CD is exceptional, too!