Fun Home is a graphic novel memoir centered around
Bechdel’s father and their sometimes close, sometimes strained relationship. Bechdel’s
father, Bruce, was a passionate restorer of their Victorian home, a high school
English teacher, a part-time funeral home director, and a man who tried to hide
his true self from friends and family. His relationship with his wife and
children was often strained, and when he commits suicide he and Alison are
barely on speaking terms. While the subject is often bleak, Bechdel has a knack
for finding both humor and beauty in difficult times.
Before picking up
Fun Home, I had not read a graphic
novel since middle school. While I enjoy a number of comic strips, I never
understood the idea of an entire book told in comic form. Now I cannot imagine
this story being told any other way. The imagery and languages work together to
immerse the reader so deeply into Bechdel’s life that it’s impossible not to
feel the complicated mix of emotions she herself felt for her father: adoration,
disgust, trust, betrayal, love, and heartbreak. Woven throughout are
comparisons of her family members to characters from literature especially
Daedalus, the ancient Greek inventor, and his son Icarus, the boy who flew too
close to the sun. In Fun Home, Alison
and Bruce take turns as parent and child to one another, at times pushing each
other to great heights, and at others falling into the depths. And much like
the tales of Greek mythology, Fun Home
is a tale that sticks with you long after the story has been told.
Fun
Home has won a number of awards including the Eisner Award for Best
Reality-Based Work, Lambda Literary Awards for Biography / Autobiography, and
the Stonewall Book Awards: Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award. In 2013, it was
adapted for the stage winning the 2015 Tony Award for Best Musical, Best
Original Score, and others.
- Portia Kapraun
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