FUN HOME
The novel Fun Home is a family tragicomic. It tells the story of the family
of the author Alison Bechdel. It is actually an attempt by the author to
understand herself and make sense of her father’s motivation and
compulsive behaviour. It makes use of the graphic medium in a forthright
manner. Her father Bruce Bechdel was not a nurturing father figure. He
was interested in getting the interior of his house done and he took
considerable pain for it. He was a genius in assembling bits and pieces
from scrap and stuff that others had thrown away. He took the help of his
three kids in doing it up the way he envisioned it.
The house was imposing and guests used to get lost as they went around
it. Visitors were awed by it. He kept on doing artful additions to it. He did
not give his children the love they deserved. The mother, his wife kept the
whole thing going. She had dreams of being an actor and she acted in
some plays. She played the piano often. Each member of the household
was an artist who was lost in his own world. The parents were not a loving
couple. They endured each other’s foibles.
The imposing mansion was a ruse used by Bruce Bechdel to lure young
boys into his home on the pretext of helping him out. He was a homo
sexual and he was always on the lookout for new partners, he was not an
ideal husband and father. He did not want to come out as Pennsylvania
was a closed society those days. He taught English literature to 12 th
graders. He ran a funeral home during his spare time. The title “Fun
Home’’ is a short form for funeral home. The children helped out and
spent many delightful moments of childhood in that house.
Alison Bechdel came out as a lesbian when she came of age. She told her
parents about this and her father told her that it was good to experiment.
Her mother told her the truth about her dad. It was a revelation which
shook Alison. Her mother told her about her dad’s various escapades with
young boys. Alison loved her dad despite all his failings. He loved to read
books and through the medium of books, he had some interaction with her
in the sense that he told her to read some of his favourite books. Alison
read books and realised that she was a lesbian. She befriends Joan and the
two become a couple.
Around that time, her mother tells Bruce that she wants a divorce. She had
lived with him for 20 years and raised 3 kids on her own. She felt that the
house was like a millstone around her neck and she wanted to break away
now the kids had reached adulthood. Bruce Bechdel was hit by a truck
and passed away suddenly. His wife and daughter did feel that it was a
suicide on his part. But it could have been an accident as he was throwing
some weeds away and suddenly stepped back onto the road, maybe he had
seen a rat snake and tried to run away. The truth will never be known. But
Alison did her best to understand him and love him despite all his short
comings. Fun home is Alison’s book as she tries to make sense of
everything that happens to her. It is also a fitting funeral for her dad who
hid his truth from the world for such a long time.