The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman

'Maus' was a recommendation on goodreads. It had been a while since I had read a graphic novel and this book had really rave reviews. Although the Nazi holocaust was becoming redundant of recent, I decided to go ahead with this book. I ordered 'The Complete Maus' and picked it up after I was done with Murakami's short stories.

I started it in the dead of the night right after I came back from watching 'Fury', another story from the second world war. The first few pages were quite catchy and I had read three chapters by the time I decided to doze off. The following day, I picked it up as soon as I was back from work and put it down late in the night after having completed it. The book really was un-put-down-able! It was not so much the story. It was how it was written. Art Spiegelman had not limited the book to just the holocaust and survival. He had written the book depicting him asking his father for the story. The book uses animal analogies to depict races. The Jews were mouses, the Germans cats, Poles were pigs and Americans dogs. There were the caricatures of his father, his second wife, himself and his wife in the book. It is this personal aspect of the book that sets it apart from the other holocaust stories. It speaks of Spiegelman's father and how he was as a person before and after the war; Spiegelman's own complex relation with his father; his memories of his mother and rivalry with a ghost-brother. In short, the personal touch that Spiegelman adds to the redundant holocaust story makes it different and captivating.

The book tells the story of Spiegelman asking his father Vladek to tell him the story of his survival. Vladek and Anja, Art's mother, had survived the holocaust. Vladek tells him of his life before the war. His life when he met Anja and they married. His successful business and of Richieu, their first born. Then the war struck and they slowly lost their families. The story is of Vladek's survival. He and Anja somehow managed to be together throughout. Through luck and wit he managed to stay alive in every camp and ghetto. Eventually in Auschwitz as well, they somehow stayed clear of the chambers and survived long enough to see the war end. Vladek also talks about how others whom he knew survived the war. He tells about the conditions they were forced to live in, the tricks they had to resort to, the sacrifices they had to make. As he puts it, there were no family or friends in those days; it was every man for himself. Interspersed in between is Vladek's character as a part of the storytelling. He is the typical miser Jew who is pained whenever he has to part with any money. This leads everyone around him to anguish. Whether his character is a result of his survival or vice versa is left unclear.

The book was very captivating. The animal analogies were interesting but wore off rather quickly. It was the Vladek's caricature and simultaneous narration that held the book together. There was no boring rant about the hardships in the camp. It was a personal story, a subjective point of view of two people, the one writing the story and the one narrating it. Though I really liked it, I have not been looking at Spiegelman's other works. And I have had enough of the second world war for some time.

The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami; I had read the name on my facebook wall one day. Intrigued, I had looked him up. Seemed like an interesting author to start reading. But I had left it there until my last visit to the local Crossword store. I was looking for Neil Gaiman but instead returned with this collection of short stories; the back cover had a compelling teaser. And although I had planned a short break from reading books, I found myself looking at a twenty hour train journey to Chennai. So I packed the book in my backpack and started flipping the pages as the train started it's slow journey.

I like reading short stories. They make for interesting fast paced story telling. The author is not bothered with filling up spaces between episodes and thus spares the reader of potentially drag stretches. Murakami is another case. At times there were no defined episodes to his stories. At times they were taken up rapidly. And most of the times, he danced about the bush to his heart's content. Surprisingly, I liked almost all of them. For very soon it was evident that Murakami is not trying to relay stories. He is trying to communicate thoughts and personalities. Stories were secondary. Rather, this book was a collection of short sketches of people who Murakami drew and detailed with evident pleasure.

There were some stories that stood out for me. The Last Lawn of the Afternoon was probably the best of the lot. Then there were Family Affair and Barn Burning. All these stories (and the others as well) present a very believable narration. At times it is evidently fantastic and strays from the realms of normalcy. But it is still believable : incredibly credible. One could imagine a sibling's hatred for his sister's fiance. One could imagine a quality assurance manager develop a fancy for a complaining customer based on her letter. And a hunger stricken couple holding up a Mc Donald's for burgers? Or a woman divorcing her husband for a pair of shorts? Murakami writes in a way that makes it all a possibility.

I really liked this collection of stories. More for the way they were written than the stories themselves. Murakami will resurface in my reading list soon. I will reserve more comments on his writing till a later date, when I have read more of him. These seventeen short stories were not enough.