Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76609 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-14
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Nick Hornby, NEW STATESMAN
"Fun Home is as satisfying a literary experience as you're likely
to have this year"

Margaret Reynolds, THE TIMES
"Fun Home is a profound and important book. Every home should
have one"

Jeanette Winterson, THE TIMES
"A wonderful piece, moving and clever"

Customer Reviews

Wolverhampton Libraries LGBT Reading Group Review
Despite the apprehension experienced by many readers when this graphic novel was presented to the LGBT Reading Group, everybody really enjoyed it.

You discover the bones of the story early on... the Bechdel's live in the family-run funeral home in a close knit community; Alison is coming out as a lesbian; her mom wants a divorce; her father is gay.

Bruce Bechdel's life is a sham; a sensitive, creative, reserved man who, in a flash, can became cold, belligerent and driven. Shortly after he dies in mysterious circumstances Alison finds out that he's been having sex with young men and has been in trouble with the law.

The story weaves through time as Alison delves deeper and deeper into the main events of her family history to reveal a tragic yet fascinating upbringing.

Although some of the themes could be regarded as heavy, they are lifted by Alison's unique and clever style - her monochrome illustrations tell her story in a remarkable way that just words never could. It seems too simple to announce that this is a really good book, but it is!

Simply superb
This is a tremendous piece of work; beautifully drawn, beautifully scripted. One takes it as autobiography, but in a sense it doesn't really matter, it's a superb literary achievement whether you treat it as fact or fiction. Alison Bechdel shows and tells the story of her father, whose homosexuality she discovered shortly after herself coming out as a lesbian, and shortly before his mysterious death. In life, he was obsessed with restoring their family home, with a level of effort that he never really put into maintaining the family. The "fun home" of the title is not in fact the family house, but the father's day job - a funeral home, "fun home" for short.

Lots of references to literature, carefully woven into the text. In years to come, people will give course on the layers of text in this book. This is really really good. Go and read it.

Powerful, moving memoir in graphic format.
Having read Bechdel's "Dykes to watch out for", I guess I had expected this to be a humorous book. In fact, it is painful and uncomfortable to read at times. Bechdel's has written/drawn a very honest account of her father and her upbringing in small town America. I was captivated by it and couldn't put it down.