Fun Home

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Title Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Author Alison Bechdel
Cover artist Alison Bechdel
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Graphic novel, Autobiography
Publisher Houghton Mifflin
Released June 8, 2006
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 240 p.
ISBN ISBN 0-618-47794-2

Fun Home (subtitled A Family Tragicomic) is a graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, focusing on her relationship with her father, Bruce Bechdel. In the New York Times Sunday Book Review, Sean Wilsey called Fun Home "a pioneering work, pushing two genres (comics and memoir) in multiple new directions."[1]

The drawing style consists of black line art with a gray-green ink wash. The book is 240 pages long, and was published by Houghton Mifflin (Boston, New York) in June 2006. Fun Home spent two weeks on the New York Times' Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller list,[2][3] and has been named as one of the best books of 2006 by numerous sources.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
A panel from Fun Home. Bruce (left) and Alison Bechdel.
A panel from Fun Home.
Bruce (left) and Alison Bechdel.

The memoir details various aspects of Bechdel's family life during her childhood and adolescence, with particular attention given to her relationship with her father, Bruce. Bruce was a funeral director and high school English teacher in Beech Creek, where Alison and her siblings grew up. The book follows Bruce's obsession with restoring the family's Victorian home, relating it to his effeminate nature and the later revelation that he was a closeted gay man. His death at age 44 may have been a suicide, possibly motivated by Bechdel's mother requesting a divorce.

The story also deals with Bechdel's own struggle with her sexual identity, culminating in the realization that she is a lesbian and her coming out to her parents. The memoir frankly examines her sexual development, including transcripts from her childhood diary, anecdotes about masturbation, and tales about her first sexual experiences.

The memoir relies on a number of allusions to various works of literature, including Joyce's Ulysses, Proust's In Search of Lost Time and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby). The novel also incorporates a number of mythological references, such as the stories of Icarus, Daedalus, and Odysseus.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Best of 2006

Fun Home has been listed by several publications as one of the best books of 2006. The New York Times included it in their list of "100 Notable Books of the Year".[4] Amazon.com listed the book in its Top 50 Books of 2006,[5] and also in the Top 10 Memoirs of 2006.[6] The Times of London placed Fun Home at number 10 in its list of the 10 best books of 2006.[7] Publisher's Weekly ranked it as the best comic book of 2006.[8]

Salon Magazine named Fun Home as the best nonfiction debut of 2006, admitting that they were fudging the definition of "debut" and saying, " "Fun Home" shimmers with regret, compassion, annoyance, frustration, pity and love — usually all at the same time and never without a pervasive, deeply literary irony about the near-impossible task of staying true to yourself, and to the people who made you who you are."[9] New York magazine included Fun Home in its 2006 Culture Awards as one of the top ten books of the year, and described it as "one of the best memoirs of the decade."[10] Entertainment Weekly called it the best nonfiction book of the year,[11][12] and Time named Fun Home the best book of 2006, describing it as "the unlikeliest literary success of 2006" and "a masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other."[13]

Fun Home was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, in the memoir/autobiography category,[14][15], and has been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book.[16]

It won the 2007 Stonewall Book Award for non-fiction,[17] and has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the "Arts & Culture" category.[18]

[edit] Removal from public library

In October 2006, a resident of Marshall, Missouri attempted to have Fun Home and Blankets by Craig Thompson removed from the city's public library.[19] Supporters of the books' removal characterized them as "pornography" and expressed concern that they would be read by children.[20] Marshall Public Library Director Amy Crump defended the books as having been well-reviewed in "reputable, professional book review journals," and characterized the removal attempt as a step towards "the slippery slope of censorship". [19][20] On October 11, 2006, the library's board appointed a committee to create a materials selection policy, and removed Fun Home and Blankets from circulation until the new policy was approved.[21][22] The committee "decided not to assign a prejudicial label or segregate [the books] by a prejudicial system",[23] and presented a materials selection policy to the board.[24] On March 14, 2007, the Marshall Public Library Board of Trustees voted to return both Fun Home and Blankets to the library's shelves.[25]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wilsey, Sean. "The Things They Buried", Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, 2006-06-18. Retrieved on 2006-08-07.
  2. ^ "Hardcover Nonfiction", New York Times, 2006-07-09. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  3. ^ "Hardcover Nonfiction", New York Times, 2006-07-16. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  4. ^ "100 Notable Books of the Year", Sunday Book Review, New York Times, 2006-12-03. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  5. ^ Best Books of 2006: Editors' Top 50. amazon.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  6. ^ Best of 2006 Top 10 Editors' Picks: Memoirs. amazon.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  7. ^ Gatti, Tom. "The 10 best books of 2006: number 10 — Fun Home", The Times, 2006-12-16. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  8. ^ "The First Annual PW Comics Week Critic's Poll", Publisher's Weekly Online, Publisher's Weekly, 2006-12-19. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
  9. ^ Miller, Laura, Hillary Frey. "Best debuts of 2006", salon.com, 2006-12-12. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  10. ^ Bonanos, Christopher, Logan Hill, Jim Holt et al.. "The Year in Books", New York, 2006-12-18 cover date. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  11. ^ Bechdel, Alison (2006-12-22). Bloody hell again.. Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
  12. ^ Error on call to Template:cite web: Parameters url and title must be specified. Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
  13. ^ Grossman, Lev, Richard Lacayo. "10 Best Books", Time, 2006-12-17. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  14. ^ Getlin, Josh. "Book Critics Circle nominees declared", Los Angeles Times, 2007-01-21. Retrieved on 2007-01-22.
  15. ^ NBCC Awards Finalists. National Book Critics Circle website. Retrieved on 2007-01-22.
  16. ^ 18th ANNUAL GLAAD MEDIA AWARDS NOMINEES. GLAAD Media Awards website. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
  17. ^ Holleran, Bechdel win 2007 Stonewall Book Awards (PDF). Cognotes 4. American Library Association (2007-01-22). Retrieved on 2007-01-24.
  18. ^ Current Finalists for the 19th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. Lambda Literary Foundation. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
  19. ^ a b Sims, Zach. "Library trustees to hold hearing on novels", The Marshall Democrat-News, 2006-10-03. Retrieved on 2006-10-08.
  20. ^ a b Sims, Zach. "Library board hears complaints about books/Decision scheduled for Oct. 11 meeting", The Marshall Democrat-News, 2006-10-05. Retrieved on 2006-10-08.
  21. ^ Brady, Matt (2006-10-12). MARSHALL LIBARAY BOARD VOTES TO ADOPT MATERIALS SELECTION POLICY. Newsarama. Retrieved on 2006-10-12.
  22. ^ Sims, Zach. "Library board votes to remove 2 books while policy for acquisitions developed", The Marshall Democrat-News, 2006-10-12. Retrieved on 2006-10-12.
  23. ^ Harper, Rachel. "Library board ready to approve new materials selection policy", The Marshall Democrat-News, 2007-01-25. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
  24. ^ Harper, Rachel. "Library policy has first reading", The Marshall Democrat-News, 2007-02-08. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
  25. ^ Harper, Rachel. "Library board approves new policy/Material selection policy created, controversial books returned to shelves", The Marshall Democrat-News, 2007-03-15. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.

[edit] External links

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