I just finished reading her autobiography, Fun Home. It was soooo, sooooooo good. She's generally better known for her Dykes to Watch Out For comic series, which is ALSO pretty-damned-awesome awesome, but I was so deeply impressed by Fun Home. I felt I could really relate to Young-college-student-coming-out-Bechdel. Anyway, I'd recommend it.
Bocks! I just finished reading it. Fabulous, to say the VERY least. It was exactly what I needed to read at this moment in time, and it's directed me to many other books! We must discuss!
YAY! That's how I felt too! I felt refreshed and enlightened and SUPERproud that I could relate to what she was saying!
Hey all, I just finished reading Fun Home this weekend - it was truly fantastic! I am going to look out for her other work too. I hadn't read a graphic novel before and was a bit wary of the quality of the writing, but I was sucked in right form the start with Bechdel's fluid narrative and gorgeous gothic drawings. This book had me laughing out loud and then stopping abruptly with the lightning-fast switch from comic to tragic. I have to read it again before it's due back at the library! How wonderful to have found a book that satisfies my obsession with chicks AND Victorian architecture. Her picture of earnest young radical feminists totally took me back to university days. Everyone: you have to read it.
The Jimmy Stewart, Wonderful Life / Xmas tree scene cracks me up ...and those cut-offs But seriously, I loved her retrospective analysis of her diary from years ago. Makes me wish I'd kept one to look back on. This book also made me realise how many classic books I've yet to read. What did you think about the structure, I mean jumping from childhood to adolescence to childhood and all over the place? I think it helped to paint an overall picture and link events and their affects on her...
She linked the hell out of everything in the text, and that made it so, so memorable! This was about the third graphic novel I've read. I also read Maus by Art Spiegelman (totally different subject matter, but still uber-incredible) and Persepolis by Marjane Sartrapi (I think that's her name). Both really moving, but more political than personal. I love how obsessive-compulsive she was, and how she went into such great detail about the conditions of her quirks, because I used to do similar things. I actually DO have things like that in my diaries. For example, I'm not devoutly religious in any sense, but I went through this obsessive-compulsive stage where I would pray ALL the time, lest something bad happen to my family. Then I'd write all the chants/prayers/whatever down, only I'd do it in such a way that nobody would be able to see what I'd been doing, so I have this: PWOMF. PDNLABHTAIMF, AITIAWIMF, PLIGFVQ. ILATYATYFLTM. IJNIP, A. written all over schoolbooks and diaries from when I was about 14. ...Now everyone thinks I'm crazy... Anyway, I love the depth and intimacy achieved in the book. It's my new favourite book. And yeah, I have to go read all those texts she references, then come back and read Fun Home again, so I can completely appreciate it.
Ha, That doesn't sound crazy, I made up a new alphabet when I was about that age, with 26 individual letters, so I could write things down that nobody would be able to read. Or maybe that's crazy too. Of course now I've forgotten what my heiroglyphs mean, so looks like my 14-year-old subconcsious ramblings will be locked away forever! Apparently Bechdel has another autobiography, The Incredible Alison Bechdel, have you read it?
No, I haven't! I'll have to look that up as well. I did find a library that has ALL the DTWOF books, so I'm MEGAexcited about that. Is The Incredible Alison Bechdel also in graphic novel format?
As I just explained to Bocks in what probably seemed to be a frazzled e-mail, I LOVE Alison Bechdel. I just marry her books, since she's taken. Check out the Dykes To Watch Out For collection! She's releasing a "Best-Of" collection in Fall 2008. And check out her website/blog! (www.dykestowatchoutfor.com) Seriously, this woman deserves support. She's been at it for over 25 years, and her graphic novels/cartoons/comics/whatever the heck you call them without offending or belittling the artist are WONDERFUL!
