Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began

Maus II continues Art Spiegelman's retelling of his parents journey through Auschwitz and beyond. I enjoyed the second story for all of the reasons I enjoyed the first:  the novel presentation and Spiegelman's brutal honesty.  But, in the same vein, all of the reasons I didn't like the first volume hold true.  The revelation of too much of Spiegelman's own life intermixed with Vladek's tale took away from Vladek's story.  I feel like the author's autobiographical input lessened the impact of Vladek's survival.  Rather than a story of survival, Maus became more of a cathartic experience for the author.  While I believe the healing Spiegelman felt while writing his father's story may have been his purpose, reading about the therapy was not my intent.

I am still puzzled about the fact that Maus I and II are used by so many high schools.  There are much better stories about the Holocaust out there!