Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Categories: Graphic Novels , Staff Picks
I must confess that this was the first graphic novel I've ever read- I've always been a littled daunted by the genre, and didn't think it was something I could lose myself in. Reading Fun Home proved me wrong. As Amy Bloom said in a blurb, "If David Sedaris could draw, and if Bleak House had been a little funnier, you'd have Alison Bechdel's Fun Home." That was enough to draw me in to this memoir about the author's closeted gay father who ran a funeral home. Despite his shortcomings as a father, the author establishes a bond with him through common interests, mainly books (he was a high school English teacher as well). Bechdel is as adept with crafting sentences as she is with illustrating them. Readers will enjoy her gothic illustrations as well as her deft descriptions of an unconventional background.
Other notable graphic novels which you might enjoy are:
Persepolis I and Persepolis II by Marjane Satrapi
Cruddy by Lynda Barry
Blankets by Craig Thompson
3 Comments
I’ll admit to being slightly shy in my approach to graphic novels too. But this one sounds really good—I’ll have to check it out.
Oh My Gosh, what a great recommendation Jennifer. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and yes I too was a graphic novel virgin. At first I had a hard time believing this was non-fiction, then I couldn’t imagine Bechdel’s life story being told without the illustrations. Fun Home is a nice mix of humor and reflection into someone else’s life experience.