FUN HOME thoughts

[thehefner]

So after hearing that it was named Number One Book of the Year by TIME Magazine, I finally broke down and read Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME. Which was foolish, of course; hey, how's about I read a comic just at the point where it's so over-hyped that it can only be a disappointment! BRILLIANT!

It's very good, don't get me wrong. Especially at the end, it's a very honest, affecting memoir. But dear lord, is it ever self-important, ponderous, and pretentious. It's like David Sedaris (or, well, me) without a trace of irony. Now, someone pointed out that this in of itself is not a bad thing; as phthoggos said, it works as a symptom of someone who grew up in an educated, literary, progressive household that was repressively cold and emotionless, and as such never learned how to express emotions normally. However, I don't think that was purposely done by the author, and as such, she accidentally succeeds in creating a revealing portrait of herself and her family. Um, congrats?

That said, every single time she likened herself and her family to Ulysses, (and, by extension, The Odyssey in general), Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, and whatever, I wanted to gag. Because every single time, it was done with such importance and gravity, without a trace or irony or humor. And that is pretentious crap right there, and if it's revealing on an artistic level, then it reveals that the author is pretentious and full of crap on a personal level.

The art's very good too, great black and white work with marker. All nice stuff, except for the fact that 95% of the time, every single person is drawn like they're hung-over. I swear to god! Most of the time, they have the exact same facial expression, no matter the scene! I mean, I don't want to judge the perspective of the person who actually knew these people (and herself), but dear lord, I think it's fair to assume that most everybody in her life didn't look like that constantly. I mean, she even has one mini-panel pointing out a character as being "elated," which comes in very handy since we never would have known otherwise!

All in all, it was a very good book, great for fans of memoirs (and I pray there's a lot of those people out there, for my sake... in a good world, this woman is going to be one of my peers). That said, it's hardly the best book I've read all year. But then, that honor was bestowed by the same magazine that named everyone Person of the Year, so there you go.

Comments

[kwsapphire.livejournal.com]

Of course, opinions about "best book" are terribly subjective. And I don't think I'd be able to read the whole book, with it being as high and mighty as you say. That kind of attitude just pisses me off :P

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh. A better way to describe it would be to imagine a very serious, ponderous memoir like you'd hear on NPR.

Of course, there'll also be a backlash from some people who don't consider comics/graphic novels as "real books," and are pissed to see it top the list. MAUS and JIMMY CORRIGAN got the same reception by some.

[phthoggos.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you're going to quote me, could you do me the favor of actually quoting me? Thanks.

And FWIW, I think Bechdel is more self-aware than you give her credit for.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

My apologies. I didn't mean to offend or piss off. I shall correct that right away. Although in fairness, no one really gives a crap about my ramblings here anyway, even if your thoughts did inspire them on. Look at the sheer deluge of responses and intelligent back-and-fourth discourse! I'm ranting at the wind here, pally.

But I'll credit you nonetheless, because yes, I should have in the first place. Even though 90% of people don't know what I'm talking about anyway and only 1% have actually read the book in question.

And ok, well, that's your opinion then.