Jobnik!

I fully appreciate the depth and curiosity of this novel.  I feel that, to it's core, Jobnik! reflects the basic experience that an American born Jewish individual would have over in Israel.  Although incredibly sexual, I did reference in class all of the things I appreciated about the novel.  Unmentioned was my criticisms, since I felt like agreeing with Dr. J more than disagreeing on this particular day.  So I will allow for my grievances to be addressed in my anonymous blog.

Particularly disturbing to me was not the graphic intensity of the sexual adventures, but rather how Miriam appeared to base her whole life surrounding them.  Her adventures in a foreign land were not consistent with her interactions with the natives as much as her interactions with the "douche-bag" stereotype of men she interacted with.  I felt like this took away from the novel on a greater whole.  I think that she, in essence, used it as a way to vent about her situations and, kind of, spit in the faces of the men that wronged her.  Not that there's anything wrong with her getting the last laugh among her acquaintances over there, but really I had hoped for a more mature out-look on this kind of life.

That was the only criticism I had for Jobnik!  However, I would like to stress how much I enjoyed and approved of her creative essence, especially during the funeral for Bashir (sp?).  I felt like this was actually the most moving, and visually appealing, scene in any graphic novel we have encountered, barring none.  The direct impact not only on the community as a whole but on every part of the life situations she has encountered couldn't even be hoped to be grasped, but through thorough word play, she seems to attempt to encompass the general feeling.  A man they based their lives around was assassinated and it was definitely going to impact them down to the core.  It still is impacting them today.  This allows me to generally interpret the feelings at a minimum and really feel the kind of core impact that she encountered through this dramatic event.

Maus Pt Numbero Dos and Rabbi's Cat

I did already comment on Carlyfries comment lower, which may have some of the same stuff as this regarding mouse, but not much since I already went into slight detail on it.  The character's strained relationship with his father seems most shocking to me.  The part that really got to me for some reason was when the focus shifts from when it's supposed to be on the holocaust and instead shifts to his relationship with his father.  It was like Art was living in the shadow of a brother that never existed every day of his life.  I wonder if he felt any amount of major anguish from that, because I know I would.  I think that's why he seems to have cut his father off from him at some point.  But the switch amazed me.  Whereas in my last post where I was taking some of the fatherly moments for granted and trying to pay attention to the holocaust memoir part, now I'm suddenly reading it for the father-son relationship.   I thought it was absolutely brilliant from both perspectives.  Maus I and II really blew me away in total with the depth of the storyline and plot.   I very much enjoyed the way Spiegelman intertwined so many different storylines and clarity into the text.  Very good read, overall.

Maus

I find few things more interesting than the Jewish Holocaust of World War 2.  I don't know why, maybe it's due to the extreme loss of life and maleficent corruption of the Nazis during the time, or the general idea of the will power of man to survive those accosting events.  Either way, Maus intrigues me for a different reason.  The way it depicts the story of a father-son relationship, as strained as it already is, while it continues to become more and more tense is truly beautiful.  These stories of the father surviving the Holocaust are not the highlight of this book.  I didn't realize that the first time I read it through.  But upon rereading it with the perspective of the stress in their lives, especially with the last line saying "Murderer," I can see the greatness in this writing.  It is every son's dream to be able to live up to the standards of his father, and to be as great a man as he views his father to be.  But here is a father-son story where the son almost despises the father because of his irresponsibility apparent malice for the son's birth mother.  Essentially the way I see it, Art views his father as the man that killed his mother even though she took her own life.  He felt like he was a major contributor towards that unfortunate event.  The writing and storytelling are superb and I truly cannot wait to see the way it plays out on Maus II.

And because she's awesome, here's a shout out to Carlyfries and her lack of smelly breath.