Fun home. Una tragicommedia familiare (2006)

I liked this. I've read almost no graphic novels so I don't have much to compare this one to, but I found it very interesting. I'm in New York right now and I'm seeing the musical based on this story so I wanted to read the book first. I liked the way the story was told. The story did switch time periods a lot but I was always able to follow along. Ou could tell that this was a very personal story and that made this book a lot more interesting. While I was reading it I couldn't really imagine how someone could take this story and turn it into a musical so I'm excited to see how the musical will play out. ( )

Really loved this graphic novel about Alison Bechdel's childhood and in particular her father. It's an unconventional upbringing in a decaying mansion, in a funeral home, but also her father is a closeted gay man who has problematic relationships with teenagers. So there is a lot of ground to cover. The book has a lightness of touch whilst dealing with serious issues, and gives a real feel of the authors own questions and issues being worked over during the course of the book. ( )

I think listening to songs from the musical gave me false memories of this being happier than it was, but there isn’t really much “comic” in this tragicomic, it’s mostly a tragedy, unless she means literal comic books and not tragic-comedy in which case that joke went over my head the first time I read it!

Anyway!! I really enjoyed revisiting this. There's a lot more I understood now (as a lesbian and as someone who's more well read) than I did in high school. I appreciated the narration a lot more. I kind of wondered though, would this have worked as not a comic? The art style isn't my favorite, and I didn't think that the form necessarily contributed as much to the narrative as it should have. Sure, some dramatic irony when she's describing a book her father liked and illustrating life events that parallel that... but it does get repetitive. I think I liked Persepolis (the only other comic-memoir i've read) more... It was also kind of hard to keep track of how old the characters were, because it's extremely nonlinear and has a lot of redundancies. I guess writing a comic book that feels stream-of-conciousness is a pretty impressive feat though due to the nature of the medium. ( )

This is a well-done memoir. It's funny. It's poignant. It made me feel not well read enough by quoting Proust and numerous other writers. It was worth reading. ( )

A little too much information. Or too little? I read it after hearing an interview. Made me want to read more Dykes to Watch Out For. ( )