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In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.
Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.
"[With] uncommon richness [and] depth...[Fun Home] shares as much in spirit with...other contemporary memoirists of considerable literary accomplishment." Kirkus Reviews, Starred
“Alison Bechdel she’s one of the best, one to watch out for."—Harvey Pekar
"If David Sedaris could draw, and if Bleak House had been a little funnier, you'd have Alison Bechdel's Fun Home."—Amy Bloom, author of A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You
"Brave and forthright and insightful—exactly what Alison Bechdel does best."—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina
"Stupendous...mesmerizing...The details...are devastatingly captured by an artist in total control of her craft."—Chip Kidd, author of The Cheese Monkeys
"One of the very best graphic novels ever." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
"Fun Home must be the most ingeniously compact, hyper-verbose example of autobiography to have been produced. . . . pioneering."—Sean Wilsey The New York Times Book Review
TIME Best Book of the Year: "A masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other." Time Magazine
"One of the best memoirs of the decade ... at once hypercontrolled and utterly intimate."—New York Magazine, 10 Best Books of 2006 New York Magazine
"Fun Home must be the most ingeniously compact, hyper-verbose example of autobiography to have been produced ... a pioneering work."—Sean Wilsey The New York Times Book Review
"A revelation ... feels like a true literary achievement, something with characters who baffle and disappoint and break hears the way people do in life and in the best of prose." Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Graphic storytelling at its most profound."—a Los Angeles Times Favorite Book of 2006 The Los Angeles Times
ALISON BECHDEL has been a careful archivist of her own life and kept a journal since she was ten. Since 1983 she has been chronicling the lives of various characters in the fictionalized “Dykes to Watch Out For” strip, “one of the preeminent oeuvres in the comics genre, period” (Ms.). The strip is syndicated in 50 alternative newspapers, translated into multiple languages, and collected into a book series with a quarter of a million copies in print. Utne magazine has listed DTWOF as “one of the greatest hits of the twentieth century.”
Jackie2794
Posted Thu Feb 16 00:00:00 EST 2012
I was recommended Bechdel's Fun Home by a former English teacher of mine. As a fairly avid reader, I was excited to see what this book had to show me. They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I couldn't help but to be captivated by all of the praise and awards on the memoir's front and back cover as I initially looked it over. To my great dismay, the book ended up being kind of a disappointment. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Bechdel - her honest writing style and literary knowledge are both interesting and impressive, but the memoir simply did not resonate with me. I don't really know what to think of this memoir; there were aspects of the book that I really loved, and other aspects that were hard to sit through, but there was nothing about this memoir that I found to be particularly gripping. I will say that I am extremely impressed with the amount of hard work that went into this memoir. The graphic novel layout (drawn by Bechdel herself) is aesthetically pleasing to the eye and really shows how arduous it must have been to create. Bechdel's story is so well thought out that it is obvious that she has spent a lot of time preparing herself to write this memoir. My biggest disappointment with this memoir was that I found nothing enticing about Bechdel's story. I think Ms. Bechdel told her story of her troubled past with her father to have closure with her upbringing, as opposed to appealing to her readers. I didn't find this book to be extremely funny or extremely sad, it was a monotonous read, which is fine, but I was really looking for a gripping memoir similar to so many that I have read before. All in all, I would say that Fun Home is a story that is either hit or miss for readers. I think that many will enjoy Alison's story and appreciate her quirkiness, but others will simply just not see what all the hype is about.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sat Aug 16 00:00:00 EDT 2008
I was introduced to this book by my former roomate who grew up not too far from where Bechdel grew up and where most of the book takes place. At first I was weary of a graphic novel but I was enthralled by her use of elevated language and literary comparision. Each time I read it I find something new, if not within the text then the pictures themselves. Her novel peeked my interest in her other works and have become a Bechdel fan. I had the pleasure of meeting her and I must say she is a woman of great intelligence and is suprisingly humble. I would agree that this book is not for everybody. But those with open minds able to appreciate a non-tradtional book with an equally different story then please by all means go forth and enjoy this book!
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Mon Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2006
A brilliant escapade into the life a young woman and an exploration of finding herself. Beautiful and far more reading intensive then other Graphic Novels/Memoirs, Fun home is beautiful in everyway. The parallels between Joyce, Fitzgerald, James, and many others is astounding. Not since Blankets have I fell in love with a Graphic Novel to this magnitude and not in a long while have I read something this eloquent, brilliant, and poigant.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Thu Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013
She curtsied, chain clinking against her angles. She lowered her head and looked at him under thick eyelashes. "Master", she said with a small smile. Dark cyrls falling into her face...
1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. A friend had given it to me well over a year ago and it's been sitting on my desk waiting for the right time. I guess yesterday was the right time, because I picked it up and finished it all in one sitting. I just couldn't put it down.
I never dreamed that seeing the artist's interpretation of actual events could be so beautiful and honest and authentic. It isn't by any means a happy story, but very relatable!
LOVED IT!
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Fri Jul 13 00:00:00 EDT 2007
I read this book as part of my book club reading. We've read a number of memoirs and I was expecting something with the same depth as the previous memoirs that we've read. I was sorely disappointed. I don't know where the 'hilarity' or the tragedy that the publisher mentions comes in at. I didn't find it anywhere. I didn't dislike the book, but I found it very benign - neither funny nor tragic. There was nothing that gripped me to draw me into the story. I read it in 2 sittings, but that's because it's such an easy read and I wanted to finish it so I could get on with the book I'd been reading and thoroughly enjoying. Fun Home was merely the author's story - just like anyone else's story. Maybe we don't all have closet-gay fathers or fathers who die violent deaths, but we all have stories. Yes, her analogies to Ulysses & The Odyssey were insightful and I enjoyed that, but those were the highlights. I felt like she wrote the book more to help herself come to terms with her life than to be of any interest to her readers.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Tue Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2006
I have been a fan of Ms. Bechdel for years, and I have collected all the books in her Dykes To Watch Out For series. I wasn't sure how she'd handle her autobiography, and I was pleasantly surprised to see she drew it in comic form, the same as her DTWOF series.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Tue May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Waits he has blonde haor grey eyes tall muscular
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Tue Jul 09 00:00:00 EDT 2013
I expect a bit more from something repeatedly called “dark comedy.” The Fun House is Gothic and is a funeral home, but this isn’t Six Feet Under. The story is dark but there is little humor. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had not been under the illusion it was “darkly funny.”
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Posted Mon Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2013
The images in Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel told whole stories in the people’s expressions. The narration is sharp and explores her stressed relationship with her father. It’s a pity he didn’t live to see his daughter mature into the artist she is today.
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Posted Fri May 18 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Very moving. The way she writes and the way she draws really gives you an insight into her childhood.
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Posted Sat Apr 28 00:00:00 EDT 2012
In every way.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sat Jan 14 00:00:00 EST 2012
LOVED THIS BOOK! Poetic and deeply personal story.
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Posted Fri Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2010
This book is highly recommended.
When it comes to biographies, Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home" really belongs in a class of its own. It is funny, sweet, brave, honest and memorable.
It combines a very personal journey with a fascinating family drama. If it had only been a prose novel, it would rank among my favourite memoirs. As a "graphic novel" it is a work of stark beauty and mastery of the artform.
Some people may be nervous about the subject matter. I understand this may not be for everone.
I think that you read this book and try to be as brave as the courageous woman who wrote this wonderful book.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Expertly structured around a growing consciousness rather than a linear narrative, this book transcends both the genres of ``graphic novel'' and ``gay lit.'' If you can find the hardcover, it's worth a few extra bucks to get the subtly die-cut dust jacket over the orange illustrated cloth cover.
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Posted Fri Dec 28 00:00:00 EST 2007
I don't understand why this book has gotten so many awards. Maybe, it's because the book is definately different then the many others I have read. I found it to be boring and inconsistent. I was very dissapointed with this book.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2007
This tragically hilarious tale completely enraptured me from the beginning. Previously, I had never read any of Ms. Bechdel's works, but I was intrigued by the premise. I read the entire book from start to finish in one go. It is so beautifully moving! The themes of estrangement, alienation and family can resinate with anyone, no matter what sexual orientation. I highly recommend it!
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Posted Thu Feb 28 00:00:00 EST 2013
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Posted Mon Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2010
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Posted Mon Jan 19 00:00:00 EST 2009
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Overview
In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.
Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until ...