Here’s some questions: Are you?? Does this book pass the Bechdel test? Yes, overwhelmingly. Also, say the title of the book with the emphasis that makes the most sense to you. ARE you my mother? Are YOU my mother? Are you MY mother? Are you my MOTHER? All of these work for this book. This is a follow-up memoir after Fun Home, that is a mature and interesting work, but one that’s also less successful and ultimately less memorable. This book follows more so along […]
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
While I already knew of Alison Bechdel and had some idea of the what her first graphic novel is about, I genuinely wasn’t prepared for how much Fun Home would affect me emotionally. It was a roller coaster of feelings, beautifully told and illustrated. Bechdel is only slightly older than I am, so her memoir of growing up in the 70s and 80s had some very familiar echoes. Though our families were dysfunctional in completely different ways, the family dynamics, cultural and social norms which she describes in Fun Home very […]
Are you my mummy?
“It’s our very capacity for self-consciousness that makes us self-destructive.” The name Bechdel is for me synonymous with the Bechdel test. I was, of course, vaguely aware that the phrase originated from a person named Bechdel who did something with comic strips or drawing on the internet, but other than that it was just a feminist test that was popular for a while, but has since gone somewhat out of fashion. <sidenote> The Bechdel test has been criticized for being insufficient, that it’s too easy. […]
Meh Home
Another book club pick, another kind of ‘meh’ book for me. It’s only the second (I think) graphic novel I’ve ever read, and while I think I like the concept of graphic novels, I’m not sure. Given that this is supposed to be one of the best ones, and I just found it to be okay, I’m guessing maybe they just aren’t for me. The topic of the book is very interesting: it’s about Ms. Bechdel’s relationship with her father, who died when she was […]