Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel

Image from amespubliclibrary.com

I will be the very first to admit that my intellectual limitations are considerable. 

I'm an excellent actress, and have made it this far pretending to be a functioning member of society. I've got you all fooled...

...but this book made me feel dumb.

I enjoyed and appreciated Bechdel's Fun Home despite the frequent literary and scholarly references. At times I even felt as thought I was able to follow along. Even if the reader doesn't absorb the deep, philosophical and artistic...um...stuff, her first novel had twists, turns, and engaged the reader. 

In Fun Home she depicted her father's story and how it shaped her own. In Are You My Mother she does the same for her mother. Both books appear to have been therapeutic outlets for the author,  but whereas the first novel was engaging, the second was exhausting. The scholarly references were pervasive and I found myself hoping for action and dynamism. It is as though the reader is sitting in on a very long therapy session. True to life, I suppose, the resolution seems to accept the fact that life's great struggles never resolve themselves neatly.  "Happily ever after" certainly wasn't warranted in Mother and I'm glad that she didn't try to include it. However, the ending felt hurried, unmotivated, and uninspired. 

Nice things to say? Well, of course.The art is excellent and I found the repetition of the same scene from a different angle interesting and innovative. I enjoyed thinking about the subtitle "A Comic Drama." That was clever. 

My thoughts on Fun Home

Arielle's Recommendation: Readers particularly interested in parental psychology will find a treasure in Are You My Mother. For mature audiences.

Bechdel, A. Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2012. Print. ISBN: 9780618982509 Hardcover. U.S. $23.00