Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Fun Home is GN about the author Alison Bechdel's youth and the things she deals with growing up. She is a lesbian and her father dies of what she thinks is suicide. She talks about her mother who never was really there for her, her father who was a closet homosexual and her two brothers. she discusses how her father who owned a funeral home called it "Fun Home" (which i thought was quit interesting that he called it fun home because who names a funural home that) and how she believes her father swayed her into being a lesbian with out ever saying so.

HISTORY:

This Graphic Novel is all about the author's history. The GN is focuses on her life growing up and the changes she went through. The whole book is told from the author's point-of-view which is nice, but i feel like there is three sides to every story. You have what she says went on during her life, what her father thinks went on during her life, and what really went on during their lives. So, i think the history is a bit tainted, but at the sametime very real. Because it is about her life from her perspective and you get to really good grasp on her childhood experiences.

THEME:

This GN has two major themes. The first being sexuality, the whole book talks about her father being gay and her being a lesbian. I think she was very bitter about her dad being gay and never coming out of the closet because she feels her life could have completely different if she would have known earlier in life. She talks about him having realtions with his students, and many other men. so, i believe sexuality is the main theme and the backgorund theme is family. Family is the second most talked about thing in this book. she recalls her life when she was younger and the struggles she had with her family. She really had no one in her household she could really relate to because everyone had their own little secret that kept the family from ever being a "normal" family ( I hate saying "normal family" because no one's family is really normal, but you know what i mean).

SUBJECTIVE RESPONSE:

I like the book because it is very different from what i would normally read. This book opened my eyes alot to homosexuality and what it can do to a family and the effects it can have on children. i couldn't really identify with the Alison, and the problems she went through as a child. But i know that every kid goes through things in their life that shape them into who they are when they are older. So, i could identify with the fact that her family wasn't perfect because i know what its like growing up and the hardships kids go through.

OBJECTIVE RESPONSE:

I think that if this was some regular old book it wouldn't be as interesting because the pictures really back up what she was written on the page. The details in this Graphic Novel were great and i really like the way it was layed out on the page.