Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Alison Brechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic may be a graphic novel, but that doesn’t make it any less erudite or insightful. The author draws and write the story of her childhood, which she is forced to view in a very different light after a) coming out as lesbian in college, b) discovering that her father, a troubled funeral home (“fun home”) director, was a closeted homosexual who’d had multiple affairs with younger men, and c) her father’s accidental death/potential sucide shortly after her parents’ divorce. In an attempt to ground herself, Bechdel set out to examine connections and differences between her and her father’s sexual journeys. Along the way, she introduces us to a cast of characters whose diversity and complexity are worthy of the greatest fiction. Their story intertwines with a larger tale of America’s gay community stumbling out of the closet. Bechdel is a funny, thoughtful writer who confronts issues of grief, sexuality, family, and redemption with creativity and poise. Whether you’re a comic fan, student of queer history, or just a connoiseur of good writing, Fun Home is definitely work a look.