'Maus Now' is a book full of fascinating critical engagement with Art Spiegelman's 'Maus', which tracks a variety of different themes explained by a wide range of critics, Since 'Maus's publication, the "graphic novel" genre has altered significantly, especially in how the genre is received by critics. It is now recognised as a valuable medium, something which was not a given in the 20th century. Now, 'Maus' is rightly recongised as the masterpiece it is, although it is once again in danger of being banned or hidden away. At this time, it is even more important that works like this receive this kind of attention, but especially that books like 'Maus Now' also depict the way criticism itself changes. There is no uniformity of thought here, art like 'Maus' can bring out a whole range of responses and discussions, each of which deserves its place in the public forum.

I would say that "Maus Now" is a better read for those with a good knowledge and strong connection to the work. If you're not very familiar with it, it might be difficult to follow some of the critics in their arguments or understand where they're trying to go. For me, I felt like 'Maus Now' really deepened by awareness of the graphic novel. One downside is that as the book covers a wide array of critiques across the decades that some things are repeated quite often, as certain aspects get discussed over and over again. It meant that it took me some time to read through it, but I'd still recommend it to those interested in diving into 'Maus' a little deeper. The interview with Spiegelman himself at the end is also incredibly insightful and was a great way to end the whole book.

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.

This is a collection of critical essays about Maus I and Maus II; the choice of medium, its significance in the field of graphic novels/comics, and its long-reaching impact across academic disciplines, on writers, and on its readers. These essays are thorough and extensive in scope and perspective, with a nice balance between being rich with information and accessible.

Way back when, when a younger me reviewed MetaMAUS (http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/MetaMAUS_by_Art_Spiegelman) I suggested it had the feel that the creator of Maus, Art Spiegelman, was finally shrugging off the impact of the work, and that he might have got the drive to go elsewhere with his talent. That book's co-creator is a different beast, however, declaring that this volume is only to mark the midway point of Maus's eighty year legacy. And anyway, rampant anti-Semitism in the USA and in the British opposition party has kind of kept that particular rodent in its particular exercise wheel, still unable to step off and leave its cycle – Art is still lecturing about Maus and its effect in what might otherwise have been his retirement years.

Still, as a much-belated sister volume to MetaMAUS comes this, a compilation of essays and thoughts, some flash-in-the-pan newspaper articles (Philip Pullman) and some ultra-hard-to-find academic pieces (he says hopefully), and some freshly into the English language. And it is a mixed bag, as seemingly intended. One German article seems heavily down on comic forms, either from a truly portrayed opinion or from the desire to belabour a point. It does come from a time, and from a chunk in this book ("Contexts") when the canonical power of this and of graphic novels in total is much underestimated.

Part two, on feedback for the book, begins with a novella of an essay, as opposed to the short stories elsewhere, taking far too much out of the fact Maus presents three photographs to us, and bringing something called postmemory to the fore. The curates egg style continues – one handy introduction steered me away from an extended musing about the validity and/or charge to be had from writing about the Holocaust in English, but I loved a look at comedic writing on the subject which featured Maus (I) for much less than a third. One I might have skipped – on Adorno-based mimesis – says how it's such and such a level of veracity, ignoring every other article around its complaint that Spiegelman changed the wording and ramped up the personal quirks of his father's interviews. (A bigger exclamation mark is in the margin perhaps where one essay completely misreads the last appearance of the name of Art's late brother.)

On the whole I could call this well-edited; with so many authors tasked with defining Maus at the start of the essays, there is very little repetition. That said, all told there seems very little consensus – just take the thoughts on Art's dad's character, ranging as they do from "resourceful" (an Israeli opinion) to "thoroughly unpleasant" or "not a nice guy, ever". The editing lets all that, errors and differences of opinion, slide, and even when people disagree on the shorthand for "Prisoner on the Hell Planet" it all passes as OK.

So it's a success, as far as these books go. But should it be purchased by you? That does depend on circumstances. I get the feel some of the academics here think Maus has been wrestled with for enough dissertations already, thank you – and it has to be remembered that a lot of the contents here have some age now. Is this, eighty years of intent regardless, a full-stop, a summation of intellectual thinking on Maus, and there's the sign-off? Potentially. But I had said the same of MetaMAUS, which presents not only an academic appreciation of the work but each and every scrap of soundbite, prelim sketch and early draft, all on CD-ROM (ask your dad). What I think I'm trying to say is that MetaMAUS seems a more sensible product to approach if you do need the book that demands you see afresh and think more deeply about Maus. Maus Now is a much deeper plunge down the rabbit hole, and as such takes us too far for many of the general readers to still be interested. But the contents here do feature many comments about Spiegelman mixing lowbrow and highbrow art and art forms, so there is still justification in this publication, for some high-thinking few.

Whether you read Maus I and II or not, this book gives you perspective of many others both negative and positive: what Maus means, what it symbolizes, whether it is right to depict something horrible this way, whether being a comic makes it more approachable without breaking anyone and everyone

I really liked this collection of essays describing the emotion and reality of Maus. I strongly recommend

I enjoyed this read for the most part. I liked the writing style and learning more about Art Spiegelman. The book was however, a bit repetitive and added a lot of fluff that I found boring. Maybe the book could've been shorter by about 150 pages. Most of this book was interesting and I learned some new stuff about comics, writing, and graphic novels. Definitely worth the read if you loved Maus 1 and 2, and/or enjoy comics.

Maus Now successfully achieves its goals to present the best writing on Maus there is from multiple time periods, print locations, in both public and academic spheres. The collection also shows just how much of an impact Maus has continued to have on people. I enjoyed the criticism also included in the collection because the criticism helps to highlight the continued push, particularly more recently, against the medium and content of Maus.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for the dARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

I grew up with Maus as it came out and it was really interesting to read some of the essays that have been published on the two books. This is definitely a compendium of essays on the works and their significance, not a retelling of the original story, so temper expectations. Some of them are denser than others, but I think if you tackle one or two at a time, it's not so bad. For those who teach with Maus, this could be a great source of additional ideas or discussion topics, especially if dealing with older students.

Maus Now: Selected Writing takes the reader through 21 essays highlighting the international discourse of Art Spiegelman's Maus from its early 1980s serialization in RAW magazine through to the present year, 2022. It was the first graphic novel to win a "Special" Pulitzer Prize (1992) due, in part, to the difficulty of classifying it to a specific genre.

For those researching Spiegelman or Maus this is an excellent source, especially when paired with 2011's MetaMaus. Through Maus Now we see the critical responses to the work and the debates and discussions focused on it. Some essays are newly translated to English, having been published in French, German or Hebrew. The volume also includes many excerpts from Maus and other Spiegelman works to emphasize their points.

While the book is loosely divided into three sections: Contexts, Problems of Representation and Legacy, some elements are discussed multiple times. Recurrent essay topics are the choice to depict the different groups as animals, the narration language, familial relationships, post-memory/generational trauma and the resolution at the end of volume 2.

As a work of scholarship this title will be of benefit to many researchers, or selected readers can help aid in class discussions. As a leisure read, it is best visited in small doses as the repetition of subject lessens the impact on a straight read through.

"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.

Not what I thought it was going to be - I was hoping for less commentary and more excerpts from the original. Still interesting and appreciate the opportunity to read more on this groundbreaking classic.

In this book, Hillary Chute recovers some of the most impressive scholarship devoted to Art Spiegelman's Maus. The graphic novel has won a Pulitzer and is highly taught in schools and colleges around the world. This book is an excellent companion that any Academic interested or studying graphic narratives should consider.

#netgalleyarc I found this book to be really enlightening, educational, and interesting. I really enjoyed reading Maus and reading these essays about the books was great. It’s not something I think my students would be interested in but anyone interested in the story behind a book would really enjoy this.

Maus is rightfully a classic which has earned its place in literary history. This book offers some great supplemental material and information but I caution against reading on a kindle. The artwork is key to the book and can not be fully appreciated in digital format due to the dark backgrounds.

This is a well-researched collection of essays about the impact of Maus and the graphic novel genre in the non-fiction world. I would recommend this for anyone doing in-depth research on this topic, for example for a research paper.

I received an ARC of this book and I can't say I was a fan of it. I don't know if it's because the ground was predominately black with white text, but it just looked intense/overwhelming to the eye. I read a good bit of the information that was given, but I skimmed through a lot of it too as it didn't interest me as much as I thought it would. I'm a huge fan of Maus and I think because I had high expectations with this book, it actually backfired for me. I didn't really enjoy this book. The information that was written was okay, but I felt like it was an in-depth book report.