Book Review ~ Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

 Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

by Alison Bechdel
published by Houghton Mifflin Co.
genre: adult, Autobiography, Graphic Novel,

Summary (Goodreads): A fresh and brilliantly told memoir from a cult favorite comic artist, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books.
This breakout book by Alison Bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Bechdel's sweetly gothic drawings. Like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, it's a story exhilaratingly suited to graphic memoir form.
Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books.
When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic — and redemptive.

My Thoughts: I will start by saying that Memoirs/Autobiographies are not something that I read on a normal basis. I have picked up a few in graphic novel form and enjoyed them more. I kept seeing this one around on everyone's list of must reads and decided to give it a try.
Unfortunately, it did not work for me. I found it to be very boring and had to force myself to finish it. There was nothing really here that made me care about the author's story. Everything was a reference to something else. A classic book (I skipped the inserted passages after the first couple) to dictionary words. I just didn't find it engaging. I kept waiting for whatever it was that everyone else loved about this book and it didn't happen for me.
Overall, this was just not for me. Whether it was the genre, the art, the way the author told her story none of it worked.

Rating: 3

Review ~ The Complete Persepolis

The Complete Persepolis

by Marjane Satrapi
published by Pantheon
genre: Adult, Graphic Novel, Memoir

Summary (Goodreads): Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom--Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

My Thoughts: During Armchair BEA this was on just about everyone's list for favorite/best graphic novels. It was definitely worth the read. Even though memoirs are not something I usually read, having one in this form was another selling point.
It's harder to review this type of book because it is someone's life story not fictional characters. Following the author's life through some very high highs to some very low lows was intriguing and kept my attention until the very end. I would recommend this to everyone. Even if you don't read memoirs/biography it is easy to get lost in this story.

Rating: 4