Books: Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

[my_daroga]

This graphic novel (sometimes known as a "comic") tells the story of Bechdel's (Dykes to Watch Out For) childhood, thematically focusing on her father's death, his dark secret, and how Bechdel and her father's lives are intertwined by literature and sexuality. It's a riveting book on its own, as Bechdel is a highly literate writer, but the art is what brings it all together. Her figures are natural and cartoony at once, striking a very good balance between realism and the kind of gap required to fully involve the reader. The whole book uses a blue watercolor wash which adds to an already quite textured black and white. It's serious and tragic and smart and funny at once, and I can't recommend it enough; I tore through it and am thinking of buying it. Bechdel's narrative of her father's place in her family is seamlessly integrated with an exploration of her sexuality; while that sounds awfully self-indulgent, it doesn't come off as detrimentally so. Her people are endearing enough that you care, too.