18

Fun Home, Chapters 1-4

I am fully aware that I say this at the beginning of every novel that we read, but I swear that Fun Home is truly my favorite comic so far. I guess I'm a sucker for a memoir. Even if this is the third or fourth one that we've read, who cares as long as the book is good? Perhaps I just have delusions of grandeur and think that one day my life will be fascinating enough that people would want to read a memoir about it. I think this is what my mother would say.

I think what endears this novel to me so much, aside from the story, is the interaction, or lack thereof, between the narration outside the panels and the speech text inside of them. As a random example: p. 71

Outside: My parents made a trip to Paris soon after their wedding, to visit an army friend of my father's.
Inside (Father): He's a writer, you'll love him.

In the past we've discussed how we don't like that the inside and outside text of the panel are so similar, that one or the other is unnecessary. I don't think this is the case here at all. I think that in Fun Home the outside is obviously the narration, but the texts inside the panels are more like asides, a sort of running commentary. And I'm a huge fan of running commentary.

One more thing. The author's father is run over by a Sunbeam bread truck, right? I love the way Sunbeam bread makes random appearances throughout the entire novel.

p. 21: on the counter
p. 31: middle left panel, in Alison's arms
p.59: the truck that squashes him
p. 67: top panel, on the table
p. 96: top panel (poster)
p. 112: top right panel

Like playing Where's Waldo?