This is an important book to read not just because of the depictions of the systemic racism jewish people faced leading up to the holocaust, or the horrors they went through during the holocaust, or the unbelievable depravity they experienced in the concentration camps. It's important because it shows how these horrible experiences we put people through, which are almost always pointless self-serving nonsense, reverberate through the generations and affect not just the marginalized group but their families and all the people they interact with in their lives.

This isn't an entertaining read (well, I chuckled once or twice, Vladek can be pretty laissez-faire about the whole thing in kind of a ridiculous manner) but it's one that I would recommend everyone read if they have the ability to do so. It's probably the most emotional book I've ever read; the framing of Art struggling to tell just how horrible Vladek's experiences were when even Vladek can't communicate it properly really shows how difficult it can be to talk about these sorts of traumas, and it really highlights how painful some more muted parts of the story had to have been at the time.

Something that really struck me was how lucky and well-off Vladek was during the holocaust; he suffered immensely, lost so much of his family including his first born son, lost his businesses, starved, barely scraped by for years and years... yet because of the bits of support he could scrounge up and his own ingenuity, the horrors he experienced weren't nearly as bad as what other people went through. And he knows it, too. When he's recounting his tale to Art, he has so much sympathy to spare for other people, but his own experiences are presented as just stuff that happens. It's honestly scary to see how normal he seems to have viewed some of his experiences when they are some of the most horrific experiences documented in recent times.

So, yeah, read Maus. It's important to do so.