Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

By Alison Bechdel

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, NATIONAL BESTSELLER 

Time Magazine #1 Book of the Year • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • 

Winner of the Stonewall Book Award • Double finalist for the Lambda Book Award •

Nominated for the GLAAD Media Award

Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts her fraught relationship with her late father. 

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.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 5, 2007
• ISBN: 9780547347004

Alison Bechdel

ALISON BECHDEL’s cult following for her early comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For expanded wildly for her family memoirs, the New York Times bestselling and Time magazine #1 Book of the Year graphic memoir Fun Home, adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical, and Are You My Mother? Bechdel has been named a MacArthur Fellow and Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, among many other honors. The Secret to Superman Strength is her third graphic memoir. 

Book preview

Reviews for Fun Home

[rosienotrose · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow this is a stunning read! Fun Home has big themes; family dynamics, identity, self discovery, but at it’s heart is a story of a father and daughter. Or two stories really, first Bechdel’s attempts to connect with her father as a child and later, her trying to understand him and their relationship after she comes out and discovers her fathers’ relationships with men.

Bechdel illustrates her unusual upbringing and own growing awareness of her sexuality well along with her father’s obsessive renovation hobby, and his gruff and distant personality. When she comes out to her parents (by letter no less) she feels this will be a stepping away from her family – something she sees as a desired freedom - only to be pulled back in when learning of her own fathers’ sexuality and his death weeks later.

“I'd been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents' tragedy”

Bechdel also weaves in literary references and artistic expressions, adding another layer to the memoir. She examines how storytelling and creative outlets can provide a lens for understanding oneself and making sense of the world. It's like a treasure hunt for bookworms, with nods to literature that make you nod in recognition or want to seek out to read for yourself.

I would encourage everyone to read this graphic memoir that delves into universal themes of family, identity, and acceptance.

[caedocyon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You can read this over and over again and get something new out of it every time. And I'm sure I'm missing loads. A real work of literature, in comic form. Fuckin' genius.

[eavans-914612 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I finally read this after years of everyone yelling at me because even my damn therapist said I should. (Un?)Fortunately related to the weird closeted gay dad thing, which was comforting to know existed in some sort of media and am really here for more of, but could not relate to the majority for obvious reasons of not being a lesbian or attracted primarily to women for the time being. It's my own ill but I genuinely enjoyed and would recommend it.

[jannes_16 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

 One of the true monumental classics of graphic fiction. Heart-wrenching, insightful and endlessly engaging. A microcosm of queerness in the 20th century. A must-read

[novelcommentary · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed reading and viewing Alison Bechdel's Fun House, which is the name given to the funeral home where her dad is a part time undertaker. He is also the high school's English teacher and a fanatical restorer of the old Victorian house where she and her two brother's were raised. In this amazing piece of work we experience, both in illustrations and words, the coming of age and the coming out of the author as she wrestles with the complicated relationship she has with her dad. The NYT extols, .."A comic book for lovers of words! Bechdel's rich language and precise images combine to create a lush piece of work — a memoir where concision and detail are melded for maximum, obsessive density." In addition, her many literary references add to the narrative here: Henry James, Fitzgerald, Camus, Faulkner, and especially Joyce. Have to thank my niece for giving me this book, certainly a genre I wouldn't have normally chosen. Highly recommend Lines:“But how could he admire Joyce’s lengthy, libidinal ‘yes’ so fervently and end up saying ‘no’ to his own life? I suppose that a lifetime spent hiding one’s erotic truth could have a cumulative renunciatory effect. Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death.” The sudden approximation of my dull, provincial life to a New Yorker cartoon was exhilarating.” It’s true that he didn’t kill himself until I was nearly twenty. But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb. He really was there all those years, a flesh-and-blood presence steaming off the wallpaper, digging up the dogwoods, polishing the finials... smelling of sawdust and sweat and designer cologne. But I ached as if he were already gone.” On a map of my hometown, a circle a mile and a half in diameter circumscribes: (A) Dad's grave, (B) the spot on Route 150 where he died, near an old farmhouse he was restoring, (C) the house where he and my mother raised our family, and (D) the farm where he was born."Sometimes, when things were going well, I think my father actually enjoyed having a family. Or at least, the air of authenticity we leant to his exhibit. A sort of still life with children.""What if Icarus hadn't hurtled into the sea? What if he'd inherited his father's inventive bent? What might he have wrought? He did hurtle into the sea, of course. But in the tricky reverse narration that impels our entwined stories, he was there to catch me as I leapt."  I kept still, like he was a splendid deer I didn't want to startle.

[oldandnewbooksmell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel discusses her relationship with her late father as well as an account of growing up uncomfortable in your own skin and knowing you are different.This book had a lot of text in it for being a graphic novel… It almost put me off reading it, but I wanted to see what could cause this book to be on the challenged/banned list (you can see my theme this year).Did I like this book, yes. It felt like an honest, well written memoir. The way Alison Bechdel talked about her father and the way she sees him changes over time is well written as well - filled with anger, confusion, and uncertainty. Did I absolutely love it, no. Again, I think it goes back to the fact that there was so much inner dialog on the pages, it felt like I was reading more of a memoir with pictures and not a graphic novel with text… if that makes sense… This is an interesting graphic novel filled with self discovery and the relationship one has with their parents.

[akbouterse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[arubabookwoman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't often read graphic novels/memoirs, but for years I've heard about how good this is. In fact, I thought I had already read it, because in my mind, I had somehow confused Alison Bechdel and Roz Chast, and somehow thought Can We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, which I have read, was this book. I now know better.I loved this graphic memoir about growing up with a father who is a closeted homosexual and a mother who is deeply unhappy, as well a coming to terms with her own sexuality. The drawings are wonderfully expressive, though simple, and convey so much. The text is exquisite, true, and abounds with literary references for us bibliophiles. The book deserves all the hype. If you are one of the few who hasn't experienced this yet, READ It.5 stars

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Adult graphic memoir. Alison describes her childhood (growing up around a funeral home with two English teachers for parents) and her changing relationship with her father when she announces that she's a lesbian. Soon after, she learns from her mother that her father has been having affairs with other men and some teen boys. Lots of feminist/lesbian/gay literature references, which were a bit over my head; the story didn't really resonate with me (and probably wouldn't, to anyone outside of that culture), but it contains a lot of substance, and I can understand why it's received such rave reviews.

[librolindsay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rounding up a bit. Overall, it's a riveting look at her Bechdel's family life, but the structure felt a little off. The beginning drew me in, but as it progressed, it jumped around to a degree that the overall momentum began to drag.

[evenlake_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This memoir can probably best be described as a spiral, where the story turns in on itself, then jumps back out to a previous point on the spiral, then turns back in towards the center. The narrative structure is so good, giving the reader glimpses of the future, then going back to the past, then winding back to the future with new knowledge about what brought us here, then ultimately tightening everything down to a conclusion.

Really great book. Great illustrations, great understanding of both storytelling and the medium of comics.

[kevix-649105 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

excellent art and vocabulary that mirror the family. portrait of a family that has artifice and bubbling underneath is tragedy waiting to happen and a discovery to be made.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fascinating, elusive, and slippery memoir about family, identity, and reading. I read this in 2010 for a class and find it just as compelling.

[narshkite · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

By accident of when books became available through the library, my time reading this overlapped with my time reading In the Dream House. These are very different books, but both are memoirs by queer women which focus in part on issues of self-identification, and do so using non-traditional forms. Another parallel? Both books are truly remarkable. Bechdel's personal story is surprising, both hard to believe and hard to not believe. Her father is revealed so honestly, truly warts and all, and also with great love. Great anger too, lots and lots of anger, but love too. And Bechdel's father did many many despicable things. I don't want to delve into anything that would be a spoiler, but I will say that it took someone very special to make him a sympathetic character (without ever absolving him for the terrible things he did.) I am not usually a graphics fan, but the form worked so well here I forgot I didn't like it. I have mentioned in reviews of other graphic memoirs and novels that I liked them, but would have liked them more if the stories had been told in a more traditional narrative, but not here. This was completely satisfying and brilliant, and it is the first time Ulysses has been explained to me in a way that makes sense.

[nancyjean19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A smart and thoughtful (albeit esoteric at times) reflection on the many places where the author's life paralleled her father's. I was most surprised by how generous she was to her father's memory -- maybe too generous, in my opinion. But that's something I enjoy about memoirs. Because the author has no distance from the subject at hand, the reader is free to draw their own conclusions more so than in a piece of fiction.

[bobbybslax · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are times when her eloquence reads more as pompous, but it all works for the kind of story she tells. Similarly, it sometimes feels like she relies a bit much on literary references, but in the end, it still feels honest. Despite my complaints I found it very well-written on the whole.

[magonistarevo-625111 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sara said it's not my kind of book, a statement I agreed with and resented. It's a little too introspective, referential to classical literature, way too highfaluten in its language.The frank descriptions of compulsive behavior was more interesting to me than the sexual realizations. Which might be the opposite of the reason people I know love this book love this book (maybe). They relate to the subject. I was more fascinated by how little I could relate. The autobiography seemed too focused on her father, but her father stepped back into the background to allow her autobiography. Too much of both and not enough of either.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Alison Bechdel reflects on the impact of learning that her father was a closeted gay man having affairs with teen boys while discovering her own sexuality as a lesbian woman. This graphic novel memoir is a perfect format for her story, with words and line drawings perfectly showing her complicated relationship with her father, who almost always has a book in his hand. The stories they connect with, the stories they tell themselves about who they are, give a brilliant portrayal of an ambiguous relationship. A book that's really hard to review, but an excellent example of how powerful and challenging a read a graphic novel can be.

[amymacevilly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great graphic novel memoir examining both her and her father's sexualities and the relationship between being able to live as one loves, or not, and the consequences to both oneself and one's family.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5*** Bestselling memoir of a young woman growing up in a dysfunctional family. Her father was a closeted gay man, living and working in a small town, helping to run his family funeral home and also teaching. His wife was also a teacher and a frustrated actress. Alison grew up confused and unsure, wanting to be a boy rather than a girl, and not fully recognizing that she was lesbian until she was in college. Despite his many flaws and failures, her father did give her a love of literature and the prompt to begin a journal, which she obsessively kept from the age of ten. In general, I’m not a fan of graphic novels. But here the colors are more muted, and the words are easier to read. The work is full of Bechdel’s marvelously detailed drawings. Her confusion, anger, disappointment and sadness come through on almost every page. I kept waiting for some joy in her life. I sincerely hope that writing this memoir has brought her the closure she needed and allowed her heart to open to more positive emotions. So, while the format is not to my taste, I did find it well-done and I’ll certainly remember it. It’s been adapted into a hit Broadway musical.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A quick read that I really enjoyed. I was surprised and moved by Bechdel's honesty, her unwillingness to simplify relationships or label people, and her use of literary references to make sense of her life. She helped me to feel and thus understand what her childhood and her struggle for self-identification was like, even though her life was very different from my own. Her drawing style strongly reminded me of Chas Addams before I even got to that panel, which also provided a connection between her childhood and mine (if a tenuous one), since I too found refuge in Addams' books as a child.

[readingover50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed reading this. The story was very interesting, and the illustrations helped capture the emotions of the story. A story of Alison's life, and the events leading up to her deciding to "come out" to her family. This is also a deeply personal look at her father and her relationship with him. I highly recommend this book.

[eoin-311239 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A thoughtful, elegant, and unflinching exploration of family, gender, expression, and memory. There is no reason not to read this book.

[cindywho-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well written circular memoir of the author's relationship with her father. She returns to memories of her childhood from different angles, always letting in new insight.

[katybee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great graphic memoir - highly recommended.

[eilonwy_anne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Definitely lives up to the hype. I didn't realize it would be as dense with allusion as it is: a challenging, honest, erudite story about grief and identity and personality. Bechdel remembers and records so much: her obsessively recorded obsessive tendencies, for instance, in her childhood diaries are idiosyncratic and illuminating.

An immensely thoughtful book about self-definition, and thanks to its format surprisingly quick to read.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Moving and painfully honest discussion of Bechdel's childhood and sexuality.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel tells the story of her childhood home, the family funerary business (nicknamed “fun home” for “funeral home”), and her complicated relationship with her father. Through her retelling, he is a complicated man, who could simultaneously delight in a moment with his children and aggravate the family through his restoration of their nineteenth-century house; he both inspired Bechdel’s own literary exploration and left her feeling unsupported in other interests. Bechdel’s narrative is as much about her own coming out as a lesbian as it is the complicated relationships of families. Even those who did not come of age in the 1970s-1980s will find commonality in her description of family dynamics.For its frank honesty, Fun Home has faced continued challenges from moral entrepreneurs who would rather avoid complicated discussions with young readers than let them encounter narratives that could ease their feelings of loneliness or isolation. Ironically, Bechdel, in describing her literary interests, discusses numerous other books that faced banning or censorship for their supposed “obscenity” over the years, such as James Joyce’s Ulysses (pg. 228). This is a must-read both for the narrative and for how Bechdel uses the power of the comics medium to convey her story.

[maggie1944 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

OK, I finished [Fun Home]. A remarkable effort by this author, I'm told this was maybe the first memoir done in the style of "graphic novel". Well done! At one point in the book she contrasts the drama of her family life with her own cool approach to understanding it. And I think she hit the nail on the head, no drama in the book, but clearly there was drama in this family.I recommend it highly.

[sheila1957 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Growing up in a small town when you are different is not easy. Add a father who seems to be so exacting, a mother who is intent on her thesis and her theater productions, and siblings who are into their own things makes it harder. Alison knows she does not like the feminine clothing her father wants her to wear and their house is, as her mother later calls it, a mausoleum. At times there are moments when she and her father are close, usually around books. Coming out in college, she must now come home for her father's funeral. This story resonated with me. I could identify with Alison. Though they are a family, there is a disconnect between them. Each person is into their own thing. No one seems to be there for one another. I don't know how this family remained together. There are memories that come out during the book. They may provide clues to the father's lifestyle but, for Alison, there is no more to them than the face value at the time. Later she can see the pattern and realize her father thought she knew about him. There is so many lost opportunities in this family for them to become closer. I felt sorry for them all.