dana_naylor's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Collection of essays about Maus, some in translation.
Divided into 3 parts: Contexts, Problems of Representation, and Legacy.
I found it a fascinating work, although a slow read if you go straight through it.
My favorite essays were
Dorit Abusch, “The Holocaust in Comics?” from 1997 and 2021
Marianne Hirsch, “My Travels with Maus, 1992-2020”
Hans Kruschwitz, “Everything Depends on Images: Reflections on Language and Image in Spiegelman’s Maus” from 2018
If you can’t get enough of literary criticism, this book may be for you!
Divided into 3 parts: Contexts, Problems of Representation, and Legacy.
I found it a fascinating work, although a slow read if you go straight through it.
My favorite essays were
Dorit Abusch, “The Holocaust in Comics?” from 1997 and 2021
Marianne Hirsch, “My Travels with Maus, 1992-2020”
Hans Kruschwitz, “Everything Depends on Images: Reflections on Language and Image in Spiegelman’s Maus” from 2018
If you can’t get enough of literary criticism, this book may be for you!
dianacarmel's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
This was a really interesting companion to The Complete Maus.
As always in a compilation, there are some pieces that are better than others. I particularly liked Comics and Catastrophe: Art Spiegelman's Maus and the History of
the Cartoon by Adam Gopnik and Spiegelman, in Nobody's Land by Pierre-Alban Delannoy.
As always in a compilation, there are some pieces that are better than others. I particularly liked Comics and Catastrophe: Art Spiegelman's Maus and the History of
the Cartoon by Adam Gopnik and Spiegelman, in Nobody's Land by Pierre-Alban Delannoy.
kriziaannacastro's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
1.0
I have read both volumes of “Maus” before and absolutely loved it thus choosing “Maus Now” to read and review. Basically, “Maus Now” is a collection of essays written about “Maus” and there is a lot. “Maus” is a tour de force in the literary world because it’s a comic book about a serious subject and a non-fiction story with animals as characters. However, the essays seems repetitive, same elements on repeat. Its boring and exasperating. The essays were nicely written but they all a repetition of the same thing. This could have been better with better editing and less essays.
Thank you Netgalley and Pantheon for providing me with an ARC Copy of the book in exchange of my honest review.
Thank you Netgalley and Pantheon for providing me with an ARC Copy of the book in exchange of my honest review.
leestewart's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
I read “Maus” right before reading “Maus Now”. The anthology helped me understand and appreciate the source material to a degree that I hadn’t on my own.
johnbirchall's review
dark
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
0.5
A very comprehensive set of essays on Art Spiegelman’s graphic history Maus setting out the facts of his father’s life in Poland during the first half of the 20th century and then after surviving Auschwitz in USA.
joelazose's review
I had such high hopes! I did my homework and reread Maus I + II immediately before in preparation. Both remain masterpieces.
This succeeds as a historical artifact, but not as a compelling set of criticism (or at least not a well-sequenced one). It collects essays from the last few decades, including first English translations of a few.
Initial reviews from the 80s are valuable curios, but little more than that. At this point, if you're reading Maus Now, you've read Maus. It's not novel to restate the plot. It's not novel to muse on how the people are depicted as animals, and it's not novel to observe the dispassionate and unflattering depictions of Vladek and the author. These are things you will already have considered, but they make up the first 50 pages, which will be deeply fatiguing.
It begs the question: who is this collection for? The observations of the first 50 pages would make someone curious if they had never read Maus -- after all, these would have been on-ramps to get readers interested in what was then a niche, underground comic. But the world of 2023 is one in which Maus has achieved relative ubiquity (thanks in no small part to bizarre bans). And again, if you're reading Maus Now, you don't need any convincing that Maus has artistic merit.
Possible that later essays bore out more interesting development. But for me, it was simply too big a lift to push through to them.
This succeeds as a historical artifact, but not as a compelling set of criticism (or at least not a well-sequenced one). It collects essays from the last few decades, including first English translations of a few.
Initial reviews from the 80s are valuable curios, but little more than that. At this point, if you're reading Maus Now, you've read Maus. It's not novel to restate the plot. It's not novel to muse on how the people are depicted as animals, and it's not novel to observe the dispassionate and unflattering depictions of Vladek and the author. These are things you will already have considered, but they make up the first 50 pages, which will be deeply fatiguing.
It begs the question: who is this collection for? The observations of the first 50 pages would make someone curious if they had never read Maus -- after all, these would have been on-ramps to get readers interested in what was then a niche, underground comic. But the world of 2023 is one in which Maus has achieved relative ubiquity (thanks in no small part to bizarre bans). And again, if you're reading Maus Now, you don't need any convincing that Maus has artistic merit.
Possible that later essays bore out more interesting development. But for me, it was simply too big a lift to push through to them.
therealcubcake's review
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
"Maus Now". A collection of essays and writings about Art Spiegelman's landmark work, "Maus". Hillary Chute has pulled together a best of selection of pieces that explore the comic and it's impact.
What stood out to me is how many times the exact same elements were pulled out and written about over the years. But more fascinating than that, was just the way the comic was spoken about early on in its publication, to the evolution of graphic novel in more recent years.
I understand the irony here of being a critic of the critics, but I found it almost humorous that they really focused on trying to justify why a comic was worth reading, almost as though it was beneath them. One even goes on to explain the difference in the rectangular boxes used for narration and commentary vs the dialogue being in speech bubbles.
Fast forward to more recent years and it's easy to see what a groundbreaking work Maus was, not just because of its subject matter, but also for how it changed the landscape of the "comic" to a "graphic novel" and into a medium that can be, and absolutely is used to tell stories just as important and serious as non-fiction and fiction books.
One thing is clear, Maus was, and continues to be an important piece of work, for it's history, and for the ways it has influenced countless other current, and future pieces.
What stood out to me is how many times the exact same elements were pulled out and written about over the years. But more fascinating than that, was just the way the comic was spoken about early on in its publication, to the evolution of graphic novel in more recent years.
I understand the irony here of being a critic of the critics, but I found it almost humorous that they really focused on trying to justify why a comic was worth reading, almost as though it was beneath them. One even goes on to explain the difference in the rectangular boxes used for narration and commentary vs the dialogue being in speech bubbles.
Fast forward to more recent years and it's easy to see what a groundbreaking work Maus was, not just because of its subject matter, but also for how it changed the landscape of the "comic" to a "graphic novel" and into a medium that can be, and absolutely is used to tell stories just as important and serious as non-fiction and fiction books.
One thing is clear, Maus was, and continues to be an important piece of work, for it's history, and for the ways it has influenced countless other current, and future pieces.
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