Bechdel, A. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. Print. ISBN: 9781417823147 Hardcover. U.S. $25.00
Awards:
2006 Publishing Triangle’s Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
2007 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir/Biography
2007 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work
2007 Stonewall Book Award's Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award
Annotation: An autobiography told through literary symbolism and detailed illustrations; Fun Home tells the story of how Bechdel came to terms with her father's death, her own sexuality, and life in general.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Jarring, painful, and simultaneously distant and
intimate, Bechdel’s illustrated journal is an emotional tour-de-force. Her true, dramatic, coming of age story reads
like a salacious novel. Fun Home is
hard to put down. Alison and her younger brothers split their childhood between
helping their father renovate his precious, historical house and helping him maintain
the family’s funeral home business (the “Fun Home” of the title). Despite the amount of time spent with together,
her father’s massive, crushing secrets do not begin to reveal themselves until
she nears adulthood. The powerful discoveries of her sexual, emotional, and
intellectual self are eclipsed by the newly discovered realities of her family’s
history. Like a frantic personal narrative, Fun
Home jumps back and forth through Bechdel’s life. Despite the lack of
chronology, the story flows easily from event to event. The format, dialogue,
and artwork make Fun Home a
captivating, fast-paced read. However, the frequent allusions to ancient texts
as well as classic European and American literature distance the reader from
the narThisrator’s experience. The frank, straight-forward discussion of death,
homosexuality, and intercourse make Fun
Home an item to be recommended only to mature readers. Similarly, the
realistic approach to these difficult topics and the respect paid through
illustration to the human body makes this book ideal for mature teenagers and
adults interested in a gripping discussion on sexuality, coming-of-age, and
what it means to be a family.
This is super cool!
Watch how Alison creates her illustrations!
Praise for Fun Home
"Hits notes that resemble Jeanette Winterson at her best . . . [A] story that's quiet, dignified, and not easy to put down." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Bechdel's memoir offers a graphic narrative of uncommon richness, depth, literary resonance, and psychological complexity . . . Though this will likely be stocked with graphic novels, it shares as much in spirit with the work of Mary Karr, Tobias Wolff, and other contemporary memoirists of considerable literary accomplishment." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Stupendous. Alison Bechdel's mesmerizing feat of familial resurrection is a rare, prime example of why graphic novels have taken over the conversation about American literature. The details — visual and verbal, emotional and elusive — are devastatingly captured by an artist in total control of her craft." — Chip Kidd, author of The Cheese Monkeys
"Brave and forthright and insightful — exactly what Alison Bechdel does best." — Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina
"The only cartoonist I know of to match [Garry] Trudeau's achievement is the brilliant Alison Bechdel." — Chris Ekman, political cartoonist
