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Alison Bechdel
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY 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 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.
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More Details:
Author
Alison Bechdel
Pages
232
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published Date
2007
ISBN
9780618871711 0618871713
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"Gorgeous. A beautiful description of family and queerness"
Isabelle Abrahamson
"Forthright, honest memoir, well told in graphic novel format. Memo to the censors: don’t you know that the more you try to ban a book, the more people want to read it."
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Harold Goldfus
"I'll start off by saying that since I've not read a graphic novel before I'm happy that I finally got to experience one. That being said, it's definitely not my preferred method of reading. I actually liked the flow of the writing and it was relentlessly erudite (which I loved!), but I just couldn't appreciate it fully because it reminded me of a comic and I just don't resonate with that personally. Also, it was visually graphic at points and it caught me off guard: fair warning if you are planning on reading this.<br/><br/>As a memoir, it was fantastic. I loved the different perspectives she has at different ages and that aspect translates perfectly to other mediums, which is why I think it is also so successful as a musical. Our local theater is currently running this production and it is fabulous! It is also touring and on Broadway, so if you have the opportunity to see it I would highly recommend!"
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Allie Peduto
"Big story. Big words. Big concepts. Big despair. Big love. Big confusion. Big dysfunction."
Allison Barilone
"It is very easy for me to say this is one of the best memoirs I've ever read, and easily the best graphic memoir. I think it's impossible to read this book without being impacted; Bechdel's life is so beautifully complex (just like everyone, a universally relatable problem) but she finds such an effortless way to tie it into such a rich story. It feels like fiction; in the way that she tells it in such a poetic and intriguing way that simply leaves you aching. I could write 10,000 glowing reviews for this book and still have more to say. Seriously, if you're debating getting this book, read it. You will want to keep it and keep coming back."
divixxyy
"If you have watched the musical and cried, this book WILL DESTROY YOU. Yes it dosent hit emotionally as hard as the musical, but trust me when I say it adds a whole new level of understanding to the Fun Home. This memoir is one of a kind in the coming of age genre and the never-mending-bond of a broken family. As a theatre kid, its a 3.5/5, but as a bookworm its a 3.99/5. Its not getting that 4 cuz I've lost way too much emotional support through this book."
0AM0
"This is a very deep book where the author reflects on her relationship with her deceased father and her journey as a lesbian. The book is full of reference to other literary classics and builds the narrative around them. The author revisits her childhood all the way to adulthood to understand how her father died but also how he helped her become the woman she is today."
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Gen sakay
"A great intro into graphic novels. This isn't as heartfelt or as tragic as it may seem from reading a book blurb, but it is great reading and well illustrated. A must for the graphic novel canon."
Andrew Greene
"Alison Bechdel tells the fascinating story of her father and her upbringing, detailing people who have negative aspects to their personality, but are also relatable. It's a tricky balancing act, and she pulls it off well."
John Detrick