From the creator who brought you Dykes to Watch Out For, comes the critically acclaimed Fun Home. This autobiography centers around Alison’s relationship with her closeted father, Bruce, and the ramification of his death.
Alison grew up in the small town of Beech Creek, Pennsylvania where her family ran a funeral home. Though often despondent, distant, and outwardly cold, her father helped shape her love of books and was dedicated to the restoration of her childhood home. Allison continues to face the challenges of adolescence including a year of obsessive-compulsive disorder and divulging to her mother that she’s started menstruating for the first time.
In college, shortly after Alison comes out as a lesbian, she discovers that Bruce was also gay. Before she can process the revelation, she soon receives the call that her father has died by possible suicide. Alison is then forced to try and cope with what that means, both to her and the rest of her family. As she tries to pull the string of grief, it unravels a mix of feelings, past assumptions, and a reexamination of that relationship.
The book is deeply personal and Alison’s art is intricately detailed along with her memories of her life at that time. This heartfelt work describes the vast path that we all take to finally understand not only ourselves, but how that identity gets intertwined with the relationships of those who raised us.