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A review by krivas91
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
3.5 stars? I always find it weird rating an author’s autobiographical content…but there’s still things that can be said. I appreciate the author’s extreme openness with her readers, and found it just really interesting to view her experience coming out as a lesbian while becoming aware of her father’s sexual activities and advances toward young men (teenagers), and figuring herself out as a child of two parents who did not outwardly/visibly show her love and affection hardly ever.
However, there were so many times that the text was just so heavy (in the emotional sense, but also the literal-literature sense), and I found myself asking if we were even intended to read the images when she would picture mostly illegible letters by her father.
Also, one review here noted the “references to classic literature that are carefully, artfully implemented and never daunting,” but I’d have to disagree; I understand that she connected to her father through literature and that’s why she included so much of it in her recollection, but I do think I felt like I was really missing something when I didn’t understand references or a few high-vocabulary words. I don’t think she could have written her way totally around that (or that she should have), but I do fear that some readers who could really use exposure to the coming out + family relationships content might be turned off of this book earlier on because of the dense presence of classic literature references.
However, there were so many times that the text was just so heavy (in the emotional sense, but also the literal-literature sense), and I found myself asking if we were even intended to read the images when she would picture mostly illegible letters by her father.
Also, one review here noted the “references to classic literature that are carefully, artfully implemented and never daunting,” but I’d have to disagree; I understand that she connected to her father through literature and that’s why she included so much of it in her recollection, but I do think I felt like I was really missing something when I didn’t understand references or a few high-vocabulary words. I don’t think she could have written her way totally around that (or that she should have), but I do fear that some readers who could really use exposure to the coming out + family relationships content might be turned off of this book earlier on because of the dense presence of classic literature references.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicide, Car accident, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia