In her memoir, Alison Bechdel discusses the death of her father when she was in college and the affect that it had on her and her family, as well as how the events in her personal life related with her father’s.

One of the things I really liked about Fun Home was the flow of the story. Bechdel would begin to talk about a specific event that happened or a habit her father had, pause that story and go on to another one that relates, and then come back to the first story/habit later on in the story. While this may sound like it would be infuriating, it was actually done so well I didn’t even notice that the topic was changed until she came back to her original point in another chapter. Although the story jumped around, it had a nice flow and always came back to tie up where it left off.

If I had to pick something I didn’t like about Fun Home, it would be I was lost on some of the comparisons to her father and certain pieces of literature because I hadn’t read those pieces. Otherwise, this is probably one of the only books I’ve read where I liked everything about it. I’m not usually one for comics, but I really liked Bechdel’s artistic style and I think making the memoir a comic was the best way to tell this story. Art and literature seemed to play a big role in Bechdel’s life, so it makes sense that a memoir about growing up and her father’s untimely death be told through art. I also liked her upfront writing style. She didn’t try to sugarcoat anything that she found out about her father before and after his death or what was going on between her parents. And I loved the final page, which seemed to bring everything she talked about together and show that, while she never felt close with her father, maybe they weren’t as different as she thought they were.