Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

147 reviews

seventhswan's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

May's read for book group, 4.5 stars. I haven't read a graphic novel since I was about eleven and I'm not entirely sure the pictures added much to this for me, other than that I do love a map and the jokes were fun to spot. Regardless, I thought this book managed to be both entertaining and moving - I can't imagine it's easy to write something funny about

your father's suicide and sexual interest in teenage boys,

but I never felt Bechdel was being overly self-pitying or morose. The quality of the writing was also really excellent and I enjoyed the references to various books and plays. Some I'd read and some I hadn't but I didn't find that, for example, not having read Ulysses myself harmed my understanding of the book. I found it easy to connect with Bechdel, I think we'd get on, we seem to have a lot in common.

I thought it was a bit rogue that the narrative was almost entirely

"and my dad killed himself because he felt so much SHAME about being GAY" as if he was only struggling with attraction to other men and not, by the sounds of it, grooming teenagers.

I can understand not wanting to reckon with that too deeply, I just kept waiting for it to be addressed and it never really was.

I was probably predisposed to like this, as I love a memoir in any form, but I still enjoyed it more than I expected. A creative and at-times relatable read that I'm excited to discuss with others.

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lindsaybethlyons's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

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jmarob's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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melissa_cosgrove's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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rhubarbpi3's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.5

I quite liked this! I thought it would be way more sad like the play (which I haven't seen but have listened to and heard a ton about) but I didn't find this very sad at all? She talks a lot about her longing for a relationship with her father, but not that she's sad she didn't have a good one... very interesting and I loved all the literary references/extended metaphors all the way through, this is the first graphic novel I've ever read to have done that. The word choice was interesting? I didn't dislike it, but there were more words I had to google than any other book I've read this year, which was interesting to pair with the perceived reading level of a story in pictures and words.

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