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Book Salon
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

  • This month we're reading Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel. Our faculty host is Blakey Vermeule.

    Listen to an interview with our Book Salon host.

    "Fun Home is an epic journey into family secrets and lies-a work of visual and literary genius that is strikingly original despite or perhaps because it draws on some of the great works of the western literary canon."

    Blakey Vermeule, professor of English

How to Participate

>> Read the audio transcript with this month's host, Professor Blakey Vermeule

>> Post a message to the online discussion group by emailing funhome@discussions.stanford.edu

>> Familiarize yourself with the Book Salon FAQs & Ground Rules

About this quarter's book selection

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic follows the life of Alison Bechdel as she grapples with her relationship with her late father. Alison’s story begins in rural Pennsylvania, where her family runs a funeral parlor. Her father is cold, calculating and often has bouts of abusive rage. This rage is soon linked to a secret that Alison uncovers when she is older – her father is a closeted gay man.

Her father’s secret lifestyle parallels her own struggles with sexual identity. First as a child, and then later as an adult. After coming out as a lesbian, Alison is left to wonder how similar she is to her father. She loses the opportunity to discuss this further with her father as he unexpectedly dies a week after her coming out. Alison is then left to ponder his complicated legacy on her own.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic was listed as one of the best books of 2006 by a number of publications including the New York Times and was also a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2013, Fun Home was adapted into a popular musical that was nominated for twelve Tony Awards and won five, including Best Musical.  

The Stanford Book Salon [Seriously Unstuffy]