Fun Home

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (2007 Mariner Books softcover 233pp)

 

Fun Home is a graphic novel autobiography-memoir. The ‘Fun Home’ of the title refers to the family funeral home business that Bechdel’s father takes over after the death of her grandfather. I thought, since that it was referred to in the title, that the business would feature more in the story but at most it’s a backdrop to a few key scenes.

In 1980 the young Alison’s father is hit by a truck and dies. As she unravels her father’s past life and secrets, she comes to suspect it may have been suicide. Under stress from multiple directions, she is struggling to find her own way in life. Her increasingly unreliable diary entries provide a backbone to the story which ranges back and forth from her childhood up until her late teens.  Prior to her father’s death she has just come out as a lesbian after unconsciously reading and closely relating to half of the subculture’s literature in her university library. Her mother drops the bombshell that Alison’s father had had liaisons with other men and was himself either gay or bisexual. This causes Bechdel to revaluate her relationship with her father as previously puzzling events and behaviour start to make sense. But many mysteries remain for her and its clear the loss of her father has left a massive hole in her life. She ends by wondering what would have happened if her father had lived on into the era of AIDS and if she herself would have ever existed if he had felt free to be himself in his own youth.

The writing and artwork are both top notch – the art being monochrome with blue accents. My only issue is that some panels that display hand-written letters or diary entries are very hard to read. It did leave me wanting to know more about Bechdel, her life and family. Indeed, I have discovered there is now a sequel which moves the focus to her mother, an interesting character in her own right.