Comic Review: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Fun home is a graphic memoir by American artist Alison Bechdel. The book focuses on Bechdel's turbulent relationship with her father and documents her coming-to-terms with his extra-marrital affairs, suicide and her own sexuality.

The book, which has been published in a traditional novel format, blurs the lines between graphic and traditional text mediums. Bechdel constantly draws parallels between the principle characters of her story and those that inhabit classic fiction, with large passages of text, taken from the likes of Fitzgerald, Wilde and Homer, superimposed between frames. This literary filter through which Bechdel views her childhood can at times become grating, but her own admission of OCD makes the constant self psychoanalysis feel honest.

Although the story of Fun Home unravels in a chronologically linear manner, it is apparent early on that the author is aware of later details that we as readers are not. For instance, an offhanded remark in the first chapter reveals a dark secret about one of the characters that is not properly addressed until toward the end of the book. This tidbit changes our perception of that character and we find ourselves judging their actions with a certain bias. Of course many of the assumptions we make from that point on are later to be revealed as false. These red herrings are so cleverly planted that you never know what's coming next.

The art of Fun Home is quite simply incredible. We fall in love with these characters because of Bechdel's ability to convey complex emotional expression. The world she creates is entirely believable in large part due to the deliberate detail in the background of every frame. The black line art has been complimented with a  green-grey ink wash painstakingly applied by hand. This is extremely effective in giving the book a distinctive look that works as a visual embodiment of of memory.

I highly recommend this to anyone, particularly those new to the graphic medium. Often confronting and incredibly honest, I think this is an important book, particularly due to its exploration of homophobia. Most importantly though, it's a brilliant read.

For more on Bechdel visit her website dykestowatchoutfor.