Fun Home

This article is about the book. For the musical based on the book, see Fun Home (musical).

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Cover of the hardback edition
AuthorAlison Bechdel
Cover artistAlison Bechdel
LanguageEnglish
GenreGraphic novel, memoir
PublishedJune 8, 2006 (Houghton Mifflin, hardcover);
June 5, 2007 (Mariner Books, paperback)
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover, paperback)
Pages240 p.
ISBN0-618-47794-2 (hardcover);
ISBN 0-618-87171-3 (paperback)
OCLC62127870
741.5/973 22
LC ClassPN6727.B3757 Z46 2006
Followed byAre You My Mother? 

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is a 2006 graphic memoir by the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, United States, focusing on her complex relationship with her father. The book addresses themes of sexual orientation, gender roles, suicide, emotional abuse, dysfunctional family life, and the role of literature in understanding oneself and one's family.

Writing and illustrating Fun Home took seven years, in part because of Bechdel's laborious artistic process, which includes photographing herself in poses for each human figure.[1][2][3][4] Fun Home has been the subject of numerous academic publications in areas such as biography studies and cultural studies as part of a larger turn towards serious academic investment in the study of comics/sequential art.[5]

Fun Home has been both a popular and critical success, and spent two weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.[6][7] In The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Sean Wilsey called it "a pioneering work, pushing two genres (comics and memoir) in multiple new directions."[8] Several publications named Fun Home as one of the best books of 2006; it was also included in several lists of the best books of the 2000s.[9] It was nominated for several awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and three Eisner Awards (winning the Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work).[9][10] A French translation of Fun Home was serialized in the newspaper Libération; the book was an official selection of the Angoulême International Comics Festival and has been the subject of an academic conference in France.[11][12][13] Fun Home also generated controversy, being challenged and removed from libraries due to its contents.[14][15][16][17]

In 2013, a musical adaptation of Fun Home at The Public Theater enjoyed multiple extensions to its run,[18][19] with book and lyrics written by Obie Award-winning playwright Lisa Kron, and score composed by Tony Award-nominated Jeanine Tesori. The production, directed by Sam Gold, was called "the first mainstream musical about a young lesbian."[20] As a musical theatre piece, Fun Home was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, while winning the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, and the Obie Award for Musical Theater.[21][22][23][24] The Broadway production opened in April 2015[25] and earned an even dozen nominations for the 69th Tony Awards, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical.

  1. ^ Emmert, Lynn (April 2007). "Life Drawing". The Comics Journal (282). Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics Books: 36. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
  2. ^ Emmert, Lynn (April 2007). "Life Drawing". The Comics Journal (282). Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics Books: 44–48. Print edition only.
  3. ^ Harrison, Margot (May 31, 2006). "Life Drawing". Seven Days. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2007.
  4. ^ Bechdel, Alison (April 18, 2006). "OCD" (video). YouTube. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  5. ^ e.g. Tolmie, Jane (2009). "Modernism, Memory and Desire: Queer Cultural Production in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home." Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. 22: 77–96;
    Watson, Julia (2008). "Autographic Disclosures and Genealogies of Desire in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home". Biography. 31 (1): 27–58. doi:10.1353/bio.0.0006. S2CID 161762349.
  6. ^ "Hardcover Nonfiction" (free registration required). The New York Times. July 9, 2006. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
  7. ^ "Hardcover Nonfiction" (free registration required). The New York Times. July 16, 2006. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
  8. ^ Wilsey, Sean (June 18, 2006). "The Things They Buried" (free registration required). Sunday Book Review. The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2006.
  9. ^ a b Bechdel, Alison. "News and Reviews". dykestowatchoutfor.com. Retrieved December 14, 2009.
  10. ^ "The 2007 Eisner Awards: Winners List". San Diego Comic-Con website. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007. Retrieved July 31, 2007.
  11. ^ Bechdel, Alison (July 26, 2006). "Tour de France". Blog. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  12. ^ "Official 2007 Selection". Angoulême International Comics Festival. Archived from the original on July 15, 2007. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  13. ^ Cherbuliez, Juliette (January 25, 2007). "There's No Place like (Fun) Home". Transatlantica. Archived from the original on September 3, 2007. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  14. ^ Twiddy, David (November 14, 2006). "As more graphic novels appear in libraries, so do challenges". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. Retrieved August 14, 2007.
  15. ^ Harper, Rachel (March 15, 2007). "Library board approves new policy/Material selection policy created, controversial books returned to shelves". The Marshall Democrat-News. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2007.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference ksl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference palmetto1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Gioia, Michael. "Michael Cerveris, Judy Kuhn, Alexandra Socha Among Cast of Fun Home; Other Public Theater Casting Announced, Too". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
  19. ^ Gioia, Michael; Hetrick, Adam (December 4, 2013). "Jeanine Tesori-Lisa Kron Musical 'Fun Home' Given Fourth Extension". Playbill. Archived from the original on December 6, 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  20. ^ Thomas, June. "Fun Home: Is America Ready for a Musical About a Butch Lesbian?". Slate. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference pulitzer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference lortel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference critics_circle was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference obie was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ Healy, Patrick (August 7, 2014). "'Fun Home' Will Reach Broadway Just Before Tonys Deadline". The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2014.