First published 2006
Alison Bechdel's family runs a funeral home, the "fun home" as she and her brothers call it. Her father, a high school English teacher and historic preservation expert, is also a closeted homosexual involved with male students. As Alison comes of age and comes out as a lesbian, her relationship with her distant father deepens through their shared love of literature. Alison's alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny narrative draws us into the Bechdel family's web of secrets, setting the stage for a swift, graphic, and redemptive denouement.
Genres: literary-fiction, memoir, biography-memoir, lgbt, graphic-novels-comics, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: United States
232 pages · Paperback · Mariner Books
Content warnings: depression, mental-illness