Putting the fun back in funeral and spicing it with tenderness, grit and regret, alison bechdels memoir fun home. Bechdel writes, my brothers and i had lots of chores at fun home, but also many interesting opportunities for play 37. On a deeper level, it evokes the way that the memoir treats death as both tragically lifealternating and as comedic, in. Like marjane satrapis persepolis, its a story exhilaratingly suited to graphic memoir form. A family tragicomic is a 2006 graphic memoir by the american cartoonist alison bechdel, author of the comic strip dykes to watch out for. A family tragicomic is comicstrip artist alison bechdel s memoir of her youth and her relationship with her father.
See services,in classifieds alison bechdel when sun 79, 4. One of the most eagerly anticipated graphic memoirs of recent years, fun home is a darkly funny family tale, pitchperfectly illustrated with alison bechdels sweetly gothic drawings. Here is the heart of the comic in the tragicomic parts of this bookas children, alison and her siblings manage to truly have fun in a funeral home. A family tragicomic houghton mifflin, 2006 im somewhat impressed that i somehow managed to read one of the new york times notable books of 2006 while its still 2006, and before they named it as a notable book. Originally best known for the longrunning comic strip dykes to watch out for, in 2006 she became a bestselling and critically acclaimed author with her graphic memoir fun home. A family tragicomic begins and ends with strong textual and visual images of her father. This breakout book by alison bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitchperfectly illustrated with bechdels sweetly gothic drawings. This years choice was fun home, an acclaimed 2006 graphic memoir by alison bechdel. A family tragicomic is a graphic memoir by alison bechdel tracing her journey from young girl to young adult as she comes to grips with her own lesbian sexuality, her father bruce s most likely suicide, and his secret homosexuality or bisexuality that he kept hidden throughout his life while having affairs with underage boys.
The word interesting is an understatement because the children were playing with the accouterment for a funeral, including capsules of smelling salts intended for people who swooned from grief. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 232 pages and is available in paperback format. In life and in death, alison bechdel s father was a mystery even to his family. Her family owns a funeral home in a small town so her father works as an english teacher, her mother an actress. Jun 05, 2007 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. Particularly revealing is a snapshot of a certain letter from father to daughter, because his indecipherable handwriting means all the reader has is.
This great graphic novel, first published in 2006, has received many praises by critics and won some awards. It focuses specifically on her parents, helen and bruce, and their role in her life. Fun home a family tragicomic is the latest work from the highly skilled, insightful, neurotic and wryhumored pen of alison bechdel, best known for her dykes to watch out for comic strip. In this first chapter, bechdel introduces her father and recollects her relationship with him in her childhood. Distant and exacting, bruce bechdel was an english teacher and director of the town funeral. A family tragicomic is a graphic novel memoir by american cartoonist alison bechdel. A fresh and brilliantly told memoir from a cult favorite comic artist, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books. Fun home is an entertaining and poignant autobiography of bechdels childhood. Originally best known for the longrunning comic strip dykes to watch out for, she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir fun home, which was subsequently adapted as a musical and won a tony award for best musical in 2015. Prior to its publication, bechdel was best known for her longrunning cult comic strip, dykes to watch out for, which followed a series of diverse characters between 1983 and 2008. It was not until college that alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay.
As alison grows older and realizes that she is a lesbian, she and bruce are both forced to confront how his repression may have affected her own selfimage and the way that she dealt with her sexuality. The importance of literature in fun home otherwomenswords. Fun home summary from litcharts the creators of sparknotes. Library board hears complaints about booksdecision scheduled for oct. 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. In alison bechdel s autobiographical graphic novel fun home.
Young alison bechdel lives in pennsylvania with helen, bruce. Bechdels rich language and precise images combine to create a lush piece of work a memoir where. Young alison bechdel lives in pennsylvania with helen, bruce, and her little brothers christian and john. Alison bechdel this book takes its place alongside the unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of augusten burroughs and mary karr. Alison says the discomfort caused by the pressure to her stomach was well worth the rare physical contact. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of fun home by alison bechdel. 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. Its a fatherdaughter tale pitchperfectly illustrated with bechdel s sweetly gothic drawings and like marjane satrapis persepolis a story exhilaratingly suited to the graphic memoir form.
A family tragicomic is a graphic memoir by alison bechdel tracing her journey from young girl to young adult as she comes to grips with her own lesbian sexuality, her father bruce s most likely suicide, and his secret homosexuality or bisexuality that he kept hidden throughout his life while having affairs with underage boys the memoir starts with alison as a young girl. Its like reading someones diary, because essentially it is someones diary, but this has to be the most painstakingly artful diary ever created. Fun home ebook by alison bechdel 9780547347004 rakuten kobo. A family tragicomic, an awesome graphic novel by american cartoonist alison bechdel. The comic memoir is a unique take on her life and gives you a real insight to the troubles her childhood held. Putting the fun back in funeral and spicing it with tenderness, grit and regret, alison bechdel s memoir fun home. Alison bechdel notes that, despite the camus title, there is nothing particularly happy about the death in the book, just as the death of brucethough treated with absurd humor at timesis more ironic than truly funny, more.
Oct 16, 2006 in life and in death, alison bechdel s father was a mystery even to his family. She tells oliver burkeman of her crazy and compulsive attempt to make sense of his story in a graphic novel. A family tragicomic alison bechdel houghton mifflin need an expert. Alison bechdel s fun home and michel foucaults repressive hypothesis the valley of the shadow of text. A family tragicomic ebook written by alison bechdel. This breakout book by alison bechdel takes its place alongside the unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of augusten burroughs and mary karr. 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. Alison bechdel, born september 10, 1960 in lock haven, pennsylvania, united states is an american cartoonist. Instead it led to terrible upset, she tells emma brockes. Alison bechdel is the author of the bestselling memoir fun home. A family tragicomic is an autobiographical graphic novel by american comic writer and artist alison bechdel.
Fun home is alison bechdels graphic memoir of her life growing up. The name of the book fun home is the nickname for the bechdel s family business which happens to be a funeral home. 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. Sep 16, 2016 described by the times of london as a profound and important book fun home. A family tragicomic is a graphic novel memoir of the authors childhood, particularly focused on her relationship with her closeted gay father bruce.
First, it captures the fact that the story of bruce in the memoir is a tragedy told in the format of a graphic novel a comic. Jun 08, 2006 alison bechdels comicform autobiography fun home. Sep 20, 2011 the subtitle of the book is a family tragicomic. As alison grows older and realizes that she is a lesbian, she and bruce are both forced to confront how his repression may have affected her own selfimage and the.
Bruce bechdel was an english teacher and director of the town funeral home, which alison and her family referred to as the fun home. Bechdels childhood, her fathers death and their shared. A family tragicomic, by alison bechdel the new york. The first panel shows alison approaching her father bruce, who is lying on the floor and puts his feet in the middle of her chest to launch her in the air for a game of airplane. Alison bechdel biography, birth date, birth place and pictures. Equal parts kunstlerroman, psychoanalytic case study, and literary criticism, alison bechdel s graphic memoir, fun home. Fun home delivers the tragedy in bechdel s life with comedic aplomb, illustrating key scenes from her childhood and adolescence in a cartoon style that harks back to the comics that came before. A family tragicomic, frames the development of a lesbian identity through the strategic use of visual and verbal representation of memories, interpretive acts, and the use of specific literary texts as transitional objects bookish and nostalgic, alison the narrator weaves. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
Meet alison s father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family s victorian house, a thirdgeneration funeral home director, a high school english teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with male students and a family babysitter. A family tragicomedy, alison bechdel books, jadore. The books first full drawing on the title page of chapter one is, in fact, a recreation of an old photograph of the enigmatic man. I also mentioned maus by art spiegelman as being awesome.
Rather than becoming bogged down in the morbid functions of the various items around the funeral home, the kids are able to see the goofy. A family tragicomic is a memoir about bechdel s family. The title of camuss book, a happy death, relates directly to the subtitle of fun home, a family tragicomic. Fun home is alison bechdel s graphic memoir of her life growing up.
A family tragicomic by bechdel, alison and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read fun home. Bechdel s memoir offers a graphic narrative of uncommon richness, depth, literary resonance and psychological complexity. Fun home is what she and her brothers called the familyowned funeral home her dad ran. The title could possibly also take after the fact alison s father was a tyrant in the household and is simply a sarcastic title to show how it was the exact opposite from being fun. This breakout book by alison bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitchperfectly illustrated with bechdel s sweetly gothic drawings. The main characters of this sequential art, graphic novels story are. A fresh and brilliantly told memoir from a cult favorite comic artist. I bought it after discovering the musical of the same name and it is a great addition to the information i had gained through experiencing the musical. The book addresses themes of sexual orientation, gender roles, suicide, emotional abuse, dysfunctional family life, and the role of literature in understanding oneself and ones family. This breakout book by alison bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitchperfectly illustrated with bechdels. Though bechdel known for her syndicated dykes to watch out for strip and collections takes her formal cues from comic books, she receives more inspiration from the likes of proust and joyce as she attempts to unravel the knots of her family s twisted. The subtitle of fun home a family tragicomic captures a number of aspects of the book. A family tragicomic book by alison bechdel thriftbooks.
Its a fatherdaughter tale perfectly suited to the graphic memoir form. In february of 2004 bechdel married amy rubin, her longtime partner, in san francisco, but the california supreme court later vacated their marriage. The story jumps back and forth in time with a main focus on bechdel s relationship with her father, his early death that alison presumes. Welcome to one of the most literate autobiographies in comics, as well as one of the most fascinating, candid and revealing, in which bechdel first sets out her dysfunctional family life in all its bizarre artifice before intertwining her personal development with her fathers past to explore what. The book has successfully gained critical acclaims and also some controversy. A family tragicomic by alison bechdel 9780618871711. A book like fun home, which blends the visually light style of a graphic novel with the emotionally challenging landscape of bechdels youth is just one more lens we can peer through, accepting, hopefully, both the hard truth and her compassion on the other side. In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, alison bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, alison bechdel charts her. Bechdel s rich language and precise images combine to create a lush piece of work a memoir where. It chronicles the authors childhood and youth in rural pennsylvania, united states, focusing on her complex relationship with her father.
A family tragicomic grabs you from the first page and never lets go. Fun home is not a book about what happened but, rather, about ideas on what. Old father, old artificer page 1 from alison bechdel s fun home. The first edition of the novel was published in june 8th 2006, and was written by alison bechdel. A family tragicomic by alison bechdel librarything. Fun home study guide from litcharts the creators of. Bechdel builds the narrative around the tragic event of her fathers death. A family tragicomic, she uses literary allusions as a way to assist her in illustrating the strained relationship between herself and her father, as well as every other relationship in her life. Though bechdel known for her syndicated dykes to watch out for strip and collections takes her formal cues from comic books, she receives more inspiration from the likes of proust and joyce as she attempts to unravel the knots of her familys twisted emotional. Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
A family tragicomic by alison bechdel and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. Fun home is what she and her brothers called the family owned funeral home her dad ran. This book takes its place alongside the unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of augusten burroughs and mary karr. Nov 30, 2008 alison bechdel hoped that fun home, her very personal graphic memoir, would heal her family s wounds. A family tragicomic reprint by alison bechdel isbn.
First published in 2006, this graphic novel has received highly positive acclaim from critics. The book addresses themes of sexual orientation, gender roles, suicide, emotional abuse, dysfunctional family. They separated in 2006, the same year that bechdel s bestselling graphic memoir about her relationship with her father, fun home. Fun home project gutenberg selfpublishing ebooks read. Fun home, subtitled a family tragicomic, is a 2006 graphic memoir by the american writer alison bechdel, author of the comic strip dykes to watch out for. A family tragicomic is an engrossing memoir that does the graphic novel format proud. Jun 08, 2006 bechdels memoir offers a graphic narrative of uncommon richness, depth, literary resonance and psychological complexity. One of the longestrunning queer comic strips, dykes to watch out for is over 20 years old, has been syndicated in hundreds of papers, released in over.
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