Fun Home - A Family Tragicomic
by Alison Bechdel
Genre: Family, Graphic Novel
Published: 2006
Paperback: 232 pages
Rating: 4
Inspiration: It was an impulse pickup at the library. Flipping through this graphic novel intrigued me and I wanted to find out what a "tragicomic" is.
Description from the book:
In this groundbreaking, best-selling graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.
Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.
My thoughts:
In-a-word(s): Ulysses
This was a great memoir of the relationship between a father and daughter. It was told in graphic novel style with images and words that fit beautifully. I loved how the author intermingled literary references to her father and his life. Along with learning about her father, the author discovers herself - all told with a sense of humor.
I love her artwork! Check out Alison's site to see samples.
