Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic―A New York Times Best Book of the 21st Century!

Love graphics and love memoirs, Alison Bechel had a terrible childhood. Her father was the third generation in the funeral business. It is creepy enough to be around funeral decor and have t0 be very solemn always in public but but little kids having to prep the viewing room with the folding chairs and always be immaculare is a fun part of childhood. I had the experience of working in the upstair apartment of a funeral home temporarily. My first husband's law practice was there. The wallpaper and carpet were funeral home style. The worst part was that I know where the caskets had been. Alison's farher was eccentric and a perfectionist, not one to give warm hugs. He had affairs with the men he hired and I will never forgive for demanding help with the embalming of a client. Not much help but just being there with a naked corpse is not a good experience for any child. This book is one of deeply troubled childhood. The graphics and writing was top notch and now I want to read her book about her mother.

Those foolish incoming Duke University freshmen who won't read this book need a good lesson in humility and the value of literature, which they would learn if they read this magnificent book. And I thank them for calling this book to my attention. Not only is it intelligent, layered, original, and astonishing, it's one of the best books I've read in a long time that uses other literary works to emphasize and humanize its story. Ms. Bechdel is sly, funny, and more self-aware than most writers I can think of, and Fun Home is a triumph. I only wish I had read it when it came out so I could have been recommending it to everyone all of these years. I can't remember the last memoir I enjoyed this much (maybe "Liar's Club" by Mary Carr) that contained so much wisdom and humor. Yes, it has much frank discussion of homosexuality but it is hardly gratuitous when it is fundamental to the natures of the two main characters--the narrator and her father, their destinies beautifully interwoven with the themes of books they read in the course of this graphic "tragicomic." Those who look down on graphic novels as less than "literature" would do well to withhold judgment until they have read "Fun Home." It is a great--an important--book--in any genre.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel is a stellar example of a quintessential memoir. Set in rural Pennsylvania, Bechdel centers her memoir around her relationship with her closeted father, Bruce and how his hidden double-life was inextricably intertwined with hers. As an autobiography, Alison Bechdel admits more about her family life than expected, rather than "setting the record straight" about her role as the only daughter in her family. This graphic novel is an autobiography very unlike its peers. Fun Home not only tells the reader eloquently about the protagonist's life in detail, it also shocks the reader multiple times by its brutal honesty. Few would be willing to admit as many hidden family secrets as the protagonist in this autobiography, Alison. Not only does the content satisfy the reader immensely, the art is breathtaking in its meticulous aspects. Her language and drawings are very sensitive to every part of his physical experience and her phases in and out of self-consciousness; Bechdel continuously delves into her past, plunging the reader into its depths every time. The memoir is not chronological, yet it focuses on each major incident by revisiting the topics from different angles. Bechdel's openness about her family's story along with her personal coming of age is what distinguishes her work from other novels I have read. I have never been taken aback so many times as with this novel. Bechdel interprets and reinterprets her relationship with her father and in turn, his relationship with their whole family, in terms of biblical, literary, and mythical stories. While this novel is certainly unconventional, it has a particularly shining moral. One of the most defining thoughts to be received from this memoir is the fact that no family is perfect, and that understanding our own families can take an emotional toll on all of our hearts.

My life doesn't easily afford going out and browsing books at actual bookstores. I can get get out and about if I'm determined, but I seldom have enough energy to be determined. This means when I want to sample someone's creative work to see if it's something I would actually read or watch all the way through, I have to use ... other means. Let's just pretend I borrowed it from the library. When I sampled this book, it hooked me so well that I couldn't stop at sampling it. I read the whole thing in one sitting, without even thinking to pause to find out where I could pay her properly for a higher-quality copy that I'd probably appreciate more, because that would take me out of the moment and I didn't want that. Having finished it, I've come here and made sure Ms. Bechdel gets her due, because she deserves it. People more eloquent than I have talked about its subject matter and why it's good, but if its description hasn't already turned you off, based on your moral principles, then you're probably compatible with this autobio-graphical-novel and I think you should just pick it up and get started. I'm certain you'll enjoy it too. TL;DR: Great book; buy it.

Une BD passionnante, qui multiplie les flash-back et les références littéraires, qui fonctionne comme un puzzle, en ne donnant à voir d'abord qu'une petite partie de l'ensemble,avant de se révéler et prendre tout son sens. L'auteure, Alison Bechdel, parsème son récit d'allusions discrètes, à travers le texte ou les dessins, et nous offre à voir son enfance, son adolescence et sa jeunesse, tandis qu'elle-même cherche à y trouver une explication, un sens. C'est beau, c'est sobre, c'est infiniment touchant et humain, comme un "A la recherche du temps perdu" moderne.

One of the best books I've read recently, I've fallen in love with Alison Bechdel way of drawing as well as writing. To write such a deep and personal story, drenching the book in a fun yet tragic atmosphere... It's like magic. I really recommend you buy this book, like, right now.

I chose this for my bookclub to read as an example of a graphic novel, none of us ever having read one before. I quickly realised that this was a memoir which made it even more interesting. From the start there are pointers that her life is developing into a tragic tale. We are left in no doubt that her father was a complicated man with many internal torments. The language is rich and luxurious with the great use of some unusual words (one or two even had me looking up definitions). I've now read a few graphic books and think this book is put together brilliantly. The words and pictures both add to each other. There is great detail in the graphics as well, many of which add more to the story than the words can alone. There is much tragedy but it is related in a blackly humorous way (man times crossing back and forward the line between comedy and tragedy). The narrative sections break into four types: the overall story telling, dialogue in speech bubbles, occasional explanatory notes and labels highlighting an element of a drawing. Essentially the book is about a father and daughter relationship. They struggle to come to terms with their differences whilst refusing to acknowledge their obvious similarities. Much of the commonality is around literature and the arts, leading to a few points where the author relies too heavily on literary references. However, I very much liked the reliance on the artistic talents in the family, particularly the mother's acting which allows her to step away from her real world. What strikes me most about this book is the depth of emotion that is written into every, carefully chosen, word. It can be a cliche to say that the process of writing is cathartic but, with this book, that feels appropriate.

Produto de boa qualidade, em forma e conteúdo <3 Alison Bechdel acerta nos detalhes, nas ironias, e a história vai direto no coração .

I heard of Fun Home from a 1h class at the Collège de France, a reference place of culture for the french elite. It was presented as an example of how comics can be the best media to present a story, here an autobiographical one. And, guess what: it's going to get the highest recognition in the 7th art (Comics) in the top french festival - this is the recognition of the full french-belgian scene and beyond! So, about the book. The story is very difficult: what can be more difficult to treat with a good story flow than the problems of identity and finding one's way in life. Chronologically, you take a long time to get to the point. If you jump straight (! The book is about living a life in a small town while having homosexual preferences) to the point, you need to do many flashbacks. The author defined a great flow and it becomes a page turner where we discover step by step how she builds herself, while the true face of her dad gets uncovered step by step- a person full of control but with a second life, that turns the family into a kind of a theater scene full of rules of engagement and sadness. The art itself is quite good and clear. At the end, this book left a very strong impression on me. It was such a work of exposing oneself in there, and evoking a topic that is so difficult: was her father truly gay? Likely. Shes sure of that. Yet the book is written with her voice, and she explains also how she became aware of her own homosexuality, making a parallel. The full work is therefore quite transparent: it is her understanding, and her position, that that was the true story of her family. Fact or interpretation? Eventually, is it really our business? The most important is the testimony of a family, ruined by normsand how they played with one another (the importance to keep a good example for the wife, the children and the community)... Being a human isn't simple. So I really liked this book, because of its honesty, its picture of the human nature in our daily lives and because it is truly a masterwork. No need for a university teacher to tell you that, just read it yourself.