Fun Home

Bechdel states that her motivation for writing Fun Home was to reflect on why things turned out the way they did in her life. She reflects on her father's untimely death and whether Alison would have made different choices if she were in his position.{{Cite journal|last=Bauer|first=Heike|date=2014|title=Vital Lines Drawn From Books: Difficult Feelings in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Are You My Mother?|journal=Journal of Lesbian Studies|volume=18|issue=3|pages=266–281|doi=10.1080/10894160.2014.896614|pmid=24972285|s2cid=38954208|url=https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/10048/1/Bechdel.Biron.pdf}} This motivation is present throughout as she contrasts Bruce's artifice in hiding things with Alison's free and open self. The process of writing Fun Home required many references to literary works and archives to both accurately write and draw the scenes. As Bechdel wrote the book, she would reread the sources of her literary references, and this attention to detail in her references led to the development of each chapter having a different literary focus.{{Cite journal|last1=Chute|first1=Hillary L.|last2=Bechdel|first2=Alison|date=2006|title=An Interview with Alison Bechdel|journal=MFS Modern Fiction Studies|language=en|volume=52|issue=4|pages=1004–1013|doi=10.1353/mfs.2007.0003|s2cid=161730250|issn=1080-658X}} On the process of writing the book, Bechdel says, "It was such a huge project: six or seven years of drawing and excavating. It was sort of like living in a trance."{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/05/alison-bechdel-interview-cartoonist-fun-home|title=Fun Home creator Alison Bechdel on turning a tragic childhood into a hit musical|last=Cooke|first=Rachel|date=November 5, 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=November 26, 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

Fun Home is drawn in black line art with a gray-blue ink wash. Sean Wilsey wrote that Fun Home{{'}}s panels "combine the detail and technical proficiency of R. Crumb with a seriousness, emotional complexity and innovation completely its own." Writing in the Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Diane Ellen Hamer contrasted "Bechdel's habit of drawing her characters very simply and yet distinctly" with "the attention to detail that she devotes to the background, those TV shows and posters on the wall, not to mention the intricacies of the funeral home as a recurring backdrop." Bechdel told an interviewer for The Comics Journal that the richness of each panel of Fun Home was very deliberate:{{blockquote|It's very important for me that people be able to read the images in the same kind of gradually unfolding way as they're reading the text. I don't like pictures that don't have information in them. I want pictures that you have to read, that you have to decode, that take time, that you can get lost in. Otherwise what's the point?Emmert, p. 46. Print edition only.}}

File:Fun Home photoreference.jpg

Bechdel wrote and illustrated Fun Home over a seven-year period. Her meticulous artistic process made the task of illustration slow. She began each page by creating a framework in Adobe Illustrator, on which she placed the text and drew rough figures. She used extensive photo reference and, for many panels, posed for each human figure herself, using a digital camera to record her poses. Bechdel also used photo reference for background elements. For example, to illustrate a panel depicting fireworks seen from a Greenwich Village rooftop on July 4, 1976, she used Google Images to find a photograph of the New York skyline taken from that particular building in that period.{{cite web|url=http://www.afterellen.com/archive/ellen/Print/2006/5/bechdel.html |title=Alison Bechdel's Life in the Fun Home |access-date=August 7, 2007 |last=Swartz |first=Shauna |date=May 8, 2006 |work=AfterEllen.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809164841/http://www.afterellen.com/archive/ellen/Print/2006/5/bechdel.html |archive-date=August 9, 2007 }}{{cite web |url=https://thetyee.ca/Books/2006/08/23/FunHome/ |title=A Dyke to Watch Out For |access-date=August 7, 2007 |last=Brooks |first=Carellin |date=August 23, 2006 |work=The Tyee}} She also painstakingly copied by hand many family photographs, letters, local maps and excerpts from her own childhood journal, incorporating these images into her narrative. After using the reference material to draw a tight framework for the page, Bechdel copied the line art illustration onto plate finish Bristol board for the final inked page, which she then scanned into her computer. The gray-blue ink wash for each page was drawn on a separate page of watercolor paper, and combined with the inked image using Photoshop. Bechdel chose the bluish wash color for its flexibility, and because it had "a bleak, elegiac quality" which suited the subject matter.Emmert, pp. 47–48. Print edition only. Bechdel attributes this detailed creative process to her "barely controlled obsessive-compulsive disorder".Emmert, p. 45. Print edition only.

Image:Fun-home-barrette.jpg

The narrative of Fun Home is non-linear and recursive.{{cite news |first=Hillary |last=Chute |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0628,chute,73800,10.html

|title=Gothic Revival |publisher=The Village Voice |date=July 11, 2006 |access-date=August 7, 2006 |url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060719065125/http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0628%2Cchute%2C73800%2C10.html |archive-date=July 19, 2006}} Incidents are told and re-told in the light of new information or themes.{{cite web | last =Deppey | first =Dirk | date = January 17, 2007 | title = 12 Days | edition = Web Extras | work = The Comics Journal | url = http://tcj.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=510&Itemid=70 | access-date = August 16, 2007}} Bechdel describes the structure of Fun Home as a labyrinth, "going over the same material, but starting from the outside and spiraling in to the center of the story."{{cite video|people=Bechdel, Alison (Interviewee), Seidel, Dena (Editor) |date=2008 |title=Alison Bechdel's Graphic Narrative |url=http://wh.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140:alison-bechdels-graphic-narrative&catid=52:warVideos&Itemid=91 |format=Flash video |medium=Web video |publisher=Rutgers University Writers House |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |access-date=April 16, 2008 |time=04:57 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411200603/http://wh.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140%3Aalison-bechdels-graphic-narrative&catid=52%3AwarVideos&Itemid=91 |archive-date=April 11, 2008 }} In an essay on memoirs and truth in the academic journal PMLA, Nancy K. Miller explains that as Bechdel revisits scenes and themes "she re-creates memories in which the force of attachment generates the structure of the memoir itself."{{cite journal | last = Miller | first = Nancy K. |date=March 2007 | title = The Entangled Self: Genre Bondage in the Age of the Memoir | journal = PMLA | volume = 122 | issue = 2 | pages = 543–544 | issn = 0030-8129 | doi = 10.1632/pmla.2007.122.2.537 | s2cid = 163034462 }} Additionally, the memoir derives its structure from allusions to various works of literature, Greek myth and visual arts; the events of Bechdel's family life during her childhood and adolescence are presented through this allusive lens. Miller notes that the narratives of the referenced literary texts "provide clues, both true and false, to the mysteries of family relations."

The memoir focuses on Bechdel's family, and is centered on her relationship with her father, Bruce. Bruce was a funeral director and high school English teacher in Beech Creek, where Alison and her siblings grew up. The book's title comes from the family nickname for the funeral home, the family business in which Bruce grew up and later worked; the phrase also refers ironically to Bruce's tyrannical domestic rule.{{cite book |last=Bechdel |first=Alison |author-link=Alison Bechdel |title=Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic |year=2006 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=New York |isbn=0-618-47794-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/funhomefamilytra00bech_0/page/36 36] |url=https://archive.org/details/funhomefamilytra00bech_0/page/36 }} Bruce's two occupations are reflected in Fun Home{{'}}s focus on death and literature.{{cite news |first = George Gene

|last = Gustines |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/books/26gust.html?ex=1155009600&en=88647dc021a0b412&ei=5070 |format=free registration required |title = 'Fun Home': A Bittersweet Tale of Father and Daughter |work = The New York Times |date = June 26, 2006 |access-date = August 7, 2006}}

In the beginning of the book, the memoir exhibits Bruce's obsession with restoring the family's Victorian home. His obsessive need to restore the house is connected to his emotional distance from his family, which he expressed in coldness and occasional bouts of abusive rage.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 11, 18, 21, 68–69, 71. This emotional distance, in turn, is connected with his being a closeted homosexual.{{cite journal |last=Hamer |first=Diane Ellen |date=May 2006 |title=My Father, My Self

|journal=Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide |volume=13 |issue=3 |page=37 |issn=1532-1118 |url=http://www.glreview.com/issues/13.3/13.3-hamer.php |access-date=August 16, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070718235030/http://glreview.com/issues/13.3/13.3-hamer.php |archive-date=July 18, 2007}} Bruce had homosexual relationships in the military and with his high school students; some of those students were also family friends and babysitters.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 58–59, 61, 71, 79, 94–95, 120. At the age of 44, two weeks after his wife requested a divorce, he stepped into the path of an oncoming Sunbeam Bread truck and was killed.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 27–30, 59, 85. Although the evidence is equivocal, Alison concludes that her father died by suicide.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 23, 27–29, 89, 116–117, 125, 232.{{cite interview|last=Bechdel |first=Alison |subject-link=Alison Bechdel |interviewer=Michelle Paradise |title=Alison Bechdel: Comic Con 2007 |url=http://www.velvetparkmagazine.com/blogit/ |format=Flash Video |work=Velvetpark |access-date=August 24, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822053331/http://www.velvetparkmagazine.com/blogit/ |archive-date=August 22, 2007 }}

The story also deals with Alison's own struggle with her sexual identity, reaching a catharsis in the realization that she is a lesbian and her coming out to her parents.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 58, 74–81, The memoir frankly examines her sexual development, including transcripts from her childhood diary, anecdotes about masturbation, and tales of her first sexual experiences with her girlfriend, Joan.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 76, 80–81, 140–143, 148–149, 153, 157–159, 162, 168–174, 180–181, 183–186, 207, 214–215, 224. In addition to their common homosexuality, Alison and Bruce share obsessive-compulsive tendencies and artistic leanings, albeit with opposing aesthetic senses: "I was Spartan to my father's Athenian. Modern to his Victorian. Butch to his nelly. Utilitarian to his aesthete."Bechdel, Fun Home, p. 15. This opposition was a source of tension in their relationship, as both tried to express their dissatisfaction with their given gender roles: "Not only were we inverts, we were inversions of each other. While I was trying to compensate for something unmanly in him, he was attempting to express something feminine through me. It was a war of cross-purposes, and so doomed to perpetual escalation."Bechdel, Fun Home, p. 98. However, shortly before Bruce's death, he and his daughter have a conversation in which Bruce confesses some of his sexual history; this is presented as a partial resolution to the conflict between father and daughter.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 220–221.

At several points in the book, Bechdel questions whether her decision to come out as a lesbian was one of the triggers for her father's suicide.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 57–59, 86, 117, 230–232. This question is never answered definitively, but Bechdel closely examines the connection between her father's closeted sexuality and her own open lesbianism, revealing her debt to her father in both positive and negative lights.

Bechdel describes her journey of discovering her own sexuality: "My realization at nineteen that I was a lesbian came about in a manner consistent with my bookish upbringing."Bechdel, Fun Home, p. 74. Yet, hints of her sexual orientation arose early in her childhood; she wished "for the right to exchange [her] tank suit for a pair of shorts" in CannesBechdel, Fun Home, p. 73. and for her brothers to call her Albert instead of Alison on one camping trip.Bechdel, Fun Home, p. 113 Her father also exhibited homosexual behaviors, but the revelation of this made Bechdel feel uneasy. "I'd been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents' tragedy".Bechdel, Fun Home, p. 58. Father and daughter handled their issues differently. Bechdel chose to accept the fact, before she had a lesbian relationship, but her father hid his sexuality.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 76–81. He was afraid of coming out, as illustrated by "the fear in his eyes" when the conversation topic comes dangerously close to homosexuality.Bechdel, Fun Home, p. 219.

In addition to sexual orientation, the memoir touches on the theme of gender identity. Bechdel had viewed her father as "a big sissy"Bechdel, Fun Home, p. 97 while her father constantly tried to change his daughter into a more feminine person throughout her childhood.

The underlying theme of death is also portrayed. Unlike most young people, the Bechdel children have a tangible relationship with death because of the family mortuary business. Alison ponders whether her father's death was an accident or suicide, and finds it more likely that he killed himself purposefully.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 27–29.

The allusive literary references used in Fun Home are not merely structural or stylistic: Bechdel writes, "I employ these allusions ... not only as descriptive devices, but because my parents are most real to me in fictional terms. And perhaps my cool aesthetic distance itself does more to convey the Arctic climate of our family than any particular literary comparison."Bechdel, Fun Home, p. 67 Bechdel, as the narrator, considers her relationship to her father through the myth of Daedalus and Icarus.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 3–4, 231–232. As a child, she confused her family and their Gothic Revival home with the Addams Family seen in the cartoons of Charles Addams.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 34–35. Bruce Bechdel's suicide is discussed with reference to Albert Camus' novel A Happy Death and essay The Myth of Sisyphus.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 27–28, 47–49. His careful construction of an aesthetic and intellectual world is compared to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the narrator suggests that Bruce Bechdel modeled elements of his life after Fitzgerald's, as portrayed in the biography The Far Side of Paradise.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 61–66, 84–86. His wife Helen is compared with the protagonists of the Henry James novels Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 66–67, 70–71. Helen Bechdel was an amateur actress, and plays in which she acted are also used to illuminate aspects of her marriage. She met Bruce Bechdel when the two were appearing in a college production of The Taming of the Shrew, and Alison Bechdel intimates that this was "a harbinger of my parents' later marriage".Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 69–70. Helen Bechdel's role as Lady Bracknell in a local production of The Importance of Being Earnest is shown in some detail; Bruce Bechdel is compared with Oscar Wilde.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 154–155, 157–158, 163–168, 175, 180, 186. His homosexuality is also examined with allusion to Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 92–97, 102, 105, 108–109, 113, 119–120. The father and daughter's artistic and obsessive-compulsive tendencies are discussed with reference to E. H. Shepard's illustrations for The Wind in the Willows.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 130–131, 146–147, 150. Bruce and Alison Bechdel exchange hints about their sexualities by exchanging memoirs: the father gives the daughter Earthly Paradise, an autobiographical collection of the writings of Colette; shortly afterwards, in what Alison Bechdel describes as "an eloquent unconscious gesture", she leaves a library copy of Kate Millett's memoir Flying for him.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 205, 207–208, 217–220, 224, 229. Finally, returning to the Daedalus myth, Alison Bechdel casts herself as Stephen Dedalus and her father as Leopold Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses, with parallel references to the myth of Telemachus and Odysseus.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 201–216, 221–223, 226, 228–231.

The chapter headings, too, are all literary allusions.{{cite book |last=Chute |first=Hillary L. |date=2010 |title=Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231150637 }} The first chapter, "Old Father, Old Artificer", refers to a line in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and the second, "A Happy Death", invokes the Camus novel. "That Old Catastrophe" is a line from Wallace Stevens's "Sunday Morning", and "In the Shadow of the Young Girls in Flower" is the literal translation of the title of one of the volumes of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, which is usually given in English as Within a Budding Grove.

In addition to the literary allusions which are explicitly acknowledged in the text, Bechdel incorporates visual allusions to television programs and other items of pop culture into her artwork, often as images on a television in the background of a panel. These visual references include the film It's a Wonderful Life, Bert and Ernie of Sesame Street, the Smiley Face, Yogi Bear, Batman, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, the resignation of Richard Nixon and The Flying Nun.Bechdel, Fun Home, pp. 10–11 (It's a Wonderful Life), 14 (Sesame Street), 15 (Smiley Face), 92 (Yogi Bear), 130 (Batman), 174–175 (Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote), 181 (Nixon), 131, 193 (The Flying Nun).

Heike Bauer, a professor at the University of London, categorizes Fun Home as part of the queer transnational archive for its contribution towards the "felt experiences" of the LGBTQ community. Bauer argues that books provide a relatable source, or a felt experience, as Alison uses literature to understand her own feelings in a homophobic society. Bauer notes that as Alison finds relatable literature for her experiences, Fun Home itself becomes a similar outlet for its readers by increasing representation of LGBTQ literature.

Valerie Rohy, an English professor at the University of Vermont, questions the authenticity of Alison's archives in the book.{{Cite journal|last=Rohy|first=Valerie|date=2010|title=In the Queer Archive: Fun Home|journal=GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies|volume=16|issue=3|pages= iv-361|doi=10.1215/10642684-2009-034|s2cid=145624992|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/382220|url-access=subscription}} Rohy explores how Alison uses her diary in her childhood and readings in her young adulthood to both document her life and learn about herself through written works. On the uncertainty relating to Bruce's cause of death, Rohy says Alison concludes it to be a suicide to fill in her knowledge gap of the situation, similar to her use of books to fill in gaps in her own understanding of her childhood.

Judith Kegan Gardiner, a professor of English and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago, views Fun Home as queer literature that bends the literary norms of the graphic novel genre,Judith Kegan Gardiner, Queering Genre: Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, Contemporary Women's Writing, Volume 5, Issue 3, November 2011, Pages 188–207, {{doi|10.1093/cww/vpr015}} arguing Bechdel combines both tragedy, normally associated with men, and humor, normally associated with women, by discussing her father's death using a comic book style and dark humor. Gardiner argues Bechdel takes control of creating an open culture for lesbian feminist work through Fun Home by focusing less on Bruce's wrongdoings regarding minors, and more on the tragedy faced by Alison and the guilt towards his subsequent death after her coming out. She also says that by breaking the gender norms of the genre, particularly within lesbian and gay literature, Fun Home has dramatically affected representation.

Fun Home was first printed in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin (Boston, New York City) on June 8, 2006.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/funhomefamilytra00bech_0 |title=Fun Home |isbn=0-618-47794-2 |access-date=August 14, 2007 |work=Houghton Mifflin website |last1=Bechdel |first1=Alison |year=2006 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt }} This edition appeared on the New York Times{{'}} Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller list for two weeks, covering the period from June 18 to July 1, 2006. It continued to sell well, and by February 2007 there were 55,000 copies in print.{{cite web |url=http://publishersweekly.com/article/CA6413947.html |title=Comics Bestsellers: February 2007 |date =February 6, 2007 |access-date=August 14, 2007 |work=Publishers Weekly |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080107133124/http://publishersweekly.com/article/CA6413947.html |archive-date = January 7, 2008}} A trade paperback edition was published in the United Kingdom by Random House under the Jonathan Cape imprint on September 14, 2006; Houghton Mifflin published a paperback edition under the Mariner Books imprint on June 5, 2007.{{cite web |url=http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/book.htm?command=Search&db=main.txt&eqisbndata=0224080512 |title=Book Details for Fun Home |access-date=August 14, 2007 |work=Random House UK website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519184300/http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/book.htm?command=Search&db=main.txt&eqisbndata=0224080512 |archive-date=May 19, 2011 |url-status=dead }}{{cite book |url=http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?textType=reviews&titleNumber=694163 |title=Fun Home |isbn=978-0-618-87171-1 |access-date=August 14, 2007 |work=Houghton Mifflin website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302042844/http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?textType=reviews&titleNumber=694163 |archive-date=March 2, 2009 |url-status=dead |last1=Bechdel |first1=Alison |year=2007 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt }}

File:Fun Home French cover.jpg]]

In the summer of 2006, a French translation of Fun Home was serialized in the Paris newspaper Libération (which had previously serialized Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi). This translation, by Corinne Julve and Lili Sztajn, was subsequently published by Éditions Denoël on October 26, 2006.{{cite web|url=http://www.denoel.fr/Denoel/Control.go?action=rech&prod_code=B25894 |title=Fun Home |access-date=August 8, 2007 |work=Éditions Denoël website |language=fr |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927204428/http://www.denoel.fr/Denoel/Control.go?action=rech&prod_code=B25894 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 }} In January 2007, Fun Home was an official selection of the Angoulême International Comics Festival. In the same month, the Anglophone Studies department of the Université François Rabelais, Tours sponsored an academic conference on Bechdel's work, with presentations in Paris and Tours. At this conference, papers were presented examining Fun Home from several perspectives: as containing "trajectories" filled with paradoxical tension; as a text interacting with images as a paratext; and as a search for meaning using drag as a metaphor.{{Cite journal

| last=Chabani

| first=Karim

| date=March 2007

| title=Double Trajectories: Crossing Lines in Fun Home

| journal=GRAAT

| location=Tours

| publisher=Université François Rabelais

| volume=on-line edition

| issue=1

| url=http://www.graat.fr/bechdel001aaaa.pdf

| access-date=August 8, 2007

}}{{Cite journal

| last=Muller

| first=Agnés

| date=March 2007

| title=Image as Paratext in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home

| journal=GRAAT

| location=Tours

| publisher=Université François Rabelais

| volume=on-line edition

| issue=1

| url=http://www.graat.fr/bechdel002aaaa.pdf

| access-date=August 8, 2007

}}{{Cite journal

| last=Tison

| first=Hélène

| date=March 2007

| title=Drag as metaphor and the quest for meaning in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

| journal=GRAAT

| location=Tours

| publisher=Université François Rabelais

| volume=on-line edition

| issue=1

| url=http://www.graat.fr/bechdel003aaaa.pdf

| access-date=August 8, 2007

}} These papers and others on Bechdel and her work were later published in the peer-reviewed journal GRAAT (Groupe de Recherches Anglo-Américaines de Tours, or Tours Anglo-American Research Group).{{Cite journal

| editor-last=Tison |editor-first=Hélène

| date=March 2007

| title=Reading Alison Bechdel

| journal=GRAAT

| location=Tours

| publisher=Université François Rabelais

| volume=on-line edition

| issue=1

| url=http://www.graat.fr/backissueabechdel.htm

| access-date=October 14, 2008

}}{{cite web |url=http://www.univ-tours.fr/graat/ |title=Groupe de Recherches Anglo-Américaines de Tours |access-date=August 21, 2007 |language=fr |work=Université François Rabelais, Tours |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070908013917/http://www.univ-tours.fr/graat/ |archive-date=September 8, 2007 }}

An Italian translation was published by Rizzoli in January 2007.{{cite web |url=http://rizzoli.rcslibri.corriere.it/rizzoli/libro/1608_fun_home_bechdel.html |title=Fun Home |work=Rizzoli |publisher=RCS MediaGroup |language=it |access-date=August 14, 2009}}{{cite web |title=Libro Fun Home |url=http://rizzoli.rcslibri.corriere.it/libro/1608_fun_home_bechdel.html |work=Libraria Rizzoli |publisher=RCS MediaGroup |language=it |access-date=August 14, 2009}} In Brazil, Conrad Editora published a Portuguese translation in 2007.{{cite web|url=http://cubo3.com.br/?p=1661 |title=Fun Home: Uma Tragicomédia Em Família |last=Magnani |first=Deborah |date=March 20, 2010 |work=cubo³ |access-date=May 21, 2010 |language=pt |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117025819/http://cubo3.com.br/?p=1661 |archive-date=January 17, 2016 }} A German translation was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in January 2008.{{cite web |url=http://www.kiwi-verlag.de/36-0-buch.htm?isbn=9783462039221 |title=Fun Home |access-date=April 16, 2008 |date=January 2008 |publisher=Kiepenheuer & Witsch |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416023934/http://www.kiwi-verlag.de/36-0-buch.htm?isbn=9783462039221 |archive-date=April 16, 2008 |url-status=dead }} The book has also been translated into Hungarian, Korean, and Polish,{{cite web|url=http://www.abiekt.pl/ksiazki/funhome |title=Fun Home. Tragikomiks rodzinny |access-date=October 9, 2008 |last=Abiekt.pl |date=October 9, 2008 |work=abiekt.pl |language=pl |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005051907/http://www.abiekt.pl/ksiazki/funhome |archive-date=October 5, 2008 }} and a Chinese translation has been scheduled for publication.{{cite web |url=http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/china-translated |title=china, translated |access-date=August 14, 2008 |last=Bechdel |first=Alison |date=August 14, 2008 |work=dykestowatchoutfor.com}}

In Spring 2012, Bechdel and literary scholar Hillary Chute co-taught a course at the University of Chicago titled "Lines of Transmission: Comics and Autobiography".{{cite web |url=http://graycenter.uchicago.edu/experiments/lines-of-transmission-comics-and-autobiography |title=Lines of Transmission: Comics and Autobiography |author= |year=2012 |website=Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry |publisher=University of Chicago |access-date=July 28, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826184810/https://graycenter.uchicago.edu/experiments/lines-of-transmission-comics-and-autobiography |archive-date=August 26, 2014 }}

Fun Home was positively reviewed in many publications. According to Book Marks, the book received a "rave" consensus, based on six critics: six "rave".{{Cite web |title=Fun Home|url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/fun-home/ |access-date=16 January 2024 |website=Book Marks}} In the September/October 2006 issue of Bookmarks, the book was scored 3.5 out of 5. The magazine's critical summary reads: "In the end, Fun Home "is an engrossing memoir that does the graphic novel format proud" (New York Times)".{{Cite web |title=Fun Home By Alison Bechdel|url=http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/fun-home/alison-bechdel|access-date=14 January 2023 |website=Bookmarks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909214158/http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/fun-home/alison-bechdel |archive-date=9 Sep 2015}}

The Times of London described Fun Home as "a profound and important book;" Salon.com called it "a beautiful, assured piece of work;" and The New York Times ran two separate reviews and a feature on the memoir.{{cite news

|first=Douglas

|last=Wolk

|url=http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/06/05/bechdel/index.html

|title=Fun Home

|work=Salon.com

|date=June 5, 2006 |access-date=August 12, 2006 |url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080418182635/http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/06/05/bechdel/index.html

|archive-date=April 18, 2008 }}{{cite news |first=Margaret |last=Reynolds |title=Images of the fragile self |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article639274.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517052125/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article639274.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 17, 2011 |work=The Times |date=September 16, 2006 |access-date=August 7, 2007 | location=London}}{{cite news

|first = Ginia

|last = Bellafante

|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/garden/03bechdel.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=garden&adxnnlx=1154913282-+1SNH8sRkuz5azY4XDISuQ

|format=paid archive

|title = Twenty Years Later, the Walls Still Talk

|work = The New York Times

|date = August 3, 2006

|access-date = August 7, 2006

}} In one New York Times review, Sean Wilsey called Fun Home "a pioneering work, pushing two genres (comics and memoir) in multiple new directions" and "a comic book for lovers of words". Jill Soloway, writing in the Los Angeles Times, praised the work overall but commented that Bechdel's reference-heavy prose is at times "a little opaque".{{cite news |first=Jill |last=Soloway |author-link=Jill Soloway |title=Skeletons in the closet |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1047943011.html?dids=1047943011:1047943011&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+4%2C+2006&author=Jill+Soloway&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=SPECIAL+ISSUE+%7C+THE+OTHER+SIDE+OF+SUMMER |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120723111057/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1047943011.html?dids=1047943011:1047943011&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+4,+2006&author=Jill+Soloway&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=SPECIAL+ISSUE+%7C+THE+OTHER+SIDE+OF+SUMMER |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 23, 2012 |format=paid archive |work=Los Angeles Times |page=R. 12 |date=June 4, 2006 |access-date=August 1, 2007}} Similarly, a reviewer in The Tyee felt that "the narrator's insistence on linking her story to those of various Greek myths, American novels and classic plays" was "forced" and "heavy-handed". By contrast, the Seattle Times{{'}} reviewer wrote positively of the book's use of literary reference, calling it "staggeringly literate".{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Pachter |title="Fun Home": Sketches of a family circus |url=http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=funhome18&date=20060616&query=%22Fun+Home%22+Alison+Bechdel |work=Seattle Times |date=June 16, 2006 |access-date=August 9, 2007 |archive-date=January 15, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115161817/http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=funhome18&date=20060616&query=%22Fun+Home%22+Alison+Bechdel |url-status=dead }} The Village Voice said that Fun Home "shows how powerfully—and economically—the medium can portray autobiographical narrative. With two-part visual and verbal narration that isn't simply synchronous, comics presents a distinctive narrative idiom in which a wealth of information may be expressed in a highly condensed fashion."

File:Alison Bechdel in London.jpg

Several publications listed Fun Home as one of the best books of 2006, including The New York Times, Amazon.com, The Times of London, New York magazine and Publishers Weekly, which ranked it as the best comic book of 2006.{{cite news |title=100 Notable Books of the Year |url=https://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/review/20061203notable-books.html?ref=books |work=Sunday Book Review |format=free registration required |publisher=The New York Times |date=December 3, 2006 |access-date=December 12, 2006 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ref%5F=amb%5Flink%5F3914172%5F1&docId=1000024441&plpage=2 |title=Best Books of 2006: Editors' Top 50 |access-date=December 18, 2006 |work=amazon.com }}{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/1000020751/ |title=Best of 2006 Top 10 Editors' Picks: Memoirs |access-date=December 18, 2006 |work=amazon.com }}{{cite news |first=Tom |last=Gatti |title=The 10 best books of 2006: number 10 — Fun Home |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2504697,00.html |work=The Times |date=December 16, 2006 |access-date=December 18, 2006 | location=London}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{cite news

| first1 = Christopher

| last1 = Bonanos

| last2=Hill. |first2=Logan |last3=Holt |first3=Jim

| title = The Year in Books

| url = https://nymag.com/arts/cultureawards/2006/25308/

| work = New York

| date = December 18, 2006

| access-date = December 12, 2006

|display-authors=etal}}{{cite news|title=The First Annual PW Comics Week Critic's Poll |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6401289.html?nid=2789 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070123003531/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6401289.html?nid=2789 |archive-date=January 23, 2007 |work=Publishers Weekly Online |publisher=Publishers Weekly |date=December 19, 2006 |access-date=December 19, 2006 |url-status=dead }} Salon.com named Fun Home the best nonfiction debut of 2006, admitting that they were fudging the definition of "debut" and saying, "Fun Home shimmers with regret, compassion, annoyance, frustration, pity and love—usually all at the same time and never without a pervasive, deeply literary irony about the near-impossible task of staying true to yourself, and to the people who made you who you are."{{cite news

|first = Laura

|last = Miller

|author2 = Hillary Frey

|title = Best debuts of 2006

|url = http://www.salon.com/books/awards/2006/12/12/debut/

|work = salon.com

|date = December 12, 2006

|access-date = December 12, 2006

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080512125029/http://www.salon.com/books/awards/2006/12/12/debut/

|archive-date = May 12, 2008

}} Entertainment Weekly called it the best nonfiction book of the year, and Time named Fun Home the best book of 2006, describing it as "the unlikeliest literary success of 2006" and "a masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other."{{Cite magazine

| last=Reese

| first=Jennifer

| date=December 29, 2006

| title=Literature of the Year

| magazine=Entertainment Weekly

| issue=913–914

| url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20006513_3,00.html

| access-date=August 6, 2007

| archive-date=September 8, 2007

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070908023917/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20006513_3,00.html

| url-status=dead

}}{{cite news |first=Lev |last=Grossman |author-link=Lev Grossman |author2=Richard Lacayo |title=10 Best Books |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1570801,00.html |magazine= Time |date=December 17, 2006 |access-date=February 13, 2021 }}

Fun Home was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, in the memoir/autobiography category.{{cite news |first=Josh |last=Getlin |title=Book Critics Circle nominees declared |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1198215671.html?dids=1198215671:1198215671&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+21%2C+2007&author=Josh+Getlin&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.17&desc=THE+NATION |work=Los Angeles Times |format=free abstract of paid archive |date=January 21, 2007 |access-date=January 22, 2007 |archive-date=October 1, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001030143/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1198215671.html?dids=1198215671:1198215671&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+21,+2007&author=Josh+Getlin&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.17&desc=THE+NATION |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.bookcritics.org/?go=finalists |title=NBCC Awards Finalists |access-date=January 22, 2007 |work=National Book Critics Circle website | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061002082415/http://www.bookcritics.org/?go=finalists| archive-date = October 2, 2006}} In 2007, Fun Home won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book, the Stonewall Book Award for non-fiction, the Publishing Triangle-Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award, and the Lambda Literary Award in the "Lesbian Memoir and Biography" category.{{cite web |url=http://www.glaad.org/publications/archive_detail.php?id=4010& |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926151119/http://www.glaad.org/publications/archive_detail.php?id=4010& |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 26, 2012 |title=18th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco |access-date=April 15, 2009}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=archive&template=/contentmanagement/contentdisplay.cfm&ContentID=148186 |title=Holleran, Bechdel win 2007 Stonewall Book Awards |date=January 22, 2007 |access-date=January 24, 2007 |publisher=American Library Association }}{{cite web |url=http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/author/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003582214 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070512115804/http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/author/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003582214 |archive-date=May 12, 2007 |title=Alison Bechdel Among Triangle Award Winners |date=May 8, 2007 |access-date=May 9, 2007 |publisher=The Book Standard |page=1 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/current_winners.html |title=Lambda Literary Awards Announce Winners |access-date=June 5, 2007 |publisher=Lambda Literary Foundation | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070610142337/http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/current_winners.html| archive-date = June 10, 2007}} Fun Home was nominated for the 2007 Eisner Awards in two categories, Best Reality-Based Work and Best Graphic Album, and Bechdel was nominated as Best Writer/Artist.{{cite web|url=http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_07nom.shtml#nomlist |title=The 2007 Eisner Awards: 2007 Master Nominations List |access-date=July 31, 2007 |work=San Diego Comic-Con website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808201201/http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_07nom.shtml |archive-date=August 8, 2007 }} Fun Home won the Eisner for Best Reality-Based Work. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly placed Fun Home at No. 68 in its list of "New Classics" (defined as "the 100 best books from 1983 to 2008").{{Cite magazine

| date = June 27, 2008

| title = The New Classics: Books

| magazine = Entertainment Weekly

| issue = 999–1000

| url = https://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20207076_20207079_20210735_7,00.html

| access-date = June 22, 2008

| archive-date = August 31, 2008

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080831204557/http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20207076_20207079_20210735_7,00.html

| url-status = dead

}} The Guardian included Fun Home in its series "1000 novels everyone must read", noting its "beautifully rendered" details.{{cite news |first=Craig |last=Taylor |author-link=Craig Taylor (writer) |title=1000 novels everyone must read: The best graphic novels |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/20/1000-novels-graphic-comics |work=The Guardian |date=January 20, 2009 |access-date=January 20, 2009 |location=London}}

In 2009, Fun Home was listed as one of the best books of the previous decade by The Times of London, Entertainment Weekly and Salon.com, and as one of the best comic books of the decade by The Onion{{'}}s A.V. Club.{{cite news |title=The 100 Best Books of the Decade |newspaper=The Times |date=November 14, 2009 |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_reviews/article6914181.ece?token=null&offset=108&page=10 |access-date=December 14, 2009 |location=London |first=Lindsay |last=McIntosh }} Listed as No. 42 of 100.
{{cite news |title=Books: The 10 Best of the Decade |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=December 3, 2009 |url=https://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20321301_20324272_4,00.html |access-date=December 14, 2009 |archive-date=December 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091207085100/http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20321301_20324272_4,00.html |url-status=dead }} Listed as No. 7 of 10.
{{cite web |url=http://www.salon.com/entertainment/best_of_the_decade_20002009/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2009/12/09/best_books_decade |title=The best books of the decade |last=Miller |first=Laura |date=December 9, 2009 |work=Salon.com |access-date=December 14, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213114200/http://www.salon.com/entertainment/best_of_the_decade_20002009/index.html?story=%2Fbooks%2Flaura_miller%2F2009%2F12%2F09%2Fbest_books_decade |archive-date=December 13, 2009 }} Listed chronologically in a list of 10 non-fiction works.
{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/the-best-comics-of-the-00s-1798220915 |title=The best comics of the '00s |last1=Handlen |first1=Zack |first2=Jason |last2=Heller |first3=Noel |last3=Murray |date=November 24, 2009 |work=The A.V. Club |publisher=The Onion |access-date=December 14, 2009 |display-authors=etal }} Listed alphabetically in a list of 25.

In 2010, the Los Angeles Times literary blog "Jacket Copy" named Fun Home as one of "20 classic works of gay literature".{{cite news |title=20 classic works of gay literature |first1=Carolyn |last1=Kellogg |first2=Owchar |last2=Nick |first3=David L. |last3=Ulin |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=August 4, 2010 |access-date=August 5, 2010 |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/08/20-classic-works-of-gay-literature.html }} In 2019, the graphic novel was ranked 33rd on The Guardian{{'}}s list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.{{cite web |title=The 100 best books of the 21st century |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/best-books-of-the-21st-century |website=The Guardian |date=September 21, 2019 |access-date=September 22, 2019}}

In October 2006, a resident of Marshall, Missouri, attempted to have Fun Home and Craig Thompson's Blankets, both graphic novels, removed from the city's public library.{{cite news

|first = Zach

|last = Sims

|title = Library trustees to hold hearing on novels

|url = http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1171005.html

|work = The Marshall Democrat-News

|date = October 3, 2006

|access-date = October 8, 2006

|archive-date = September 13, 2016

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160913053338/http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1171005.html

|url-status = dead

}} Supporters of the books' removal characterized them as "pornography" and expressed concern that they would be read by children.{{cite news

|first = Zach

|last = Sims

|title = Library board hears complaints about books/Decision scheduled for Oct. 11 meeting

|url = http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1171432.html

|work = The Marshall Democrat-News

|date = October 5, 2006

|access-date = October 8, 2006

|archive-date = September 12, 2016

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160912232301/http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1171432.html

|url-status = dead

}} Marshall Public Library Director Amy Crump defended the books as having been well-reviewed in "reputable, professional book review journals", and characterized the removal attempt as a step towards "the slippery slope of censorship". On October 11, 2006, the library's board appointed a committee to create a materials selection policy, and removed Fun Home and Blankets from circulation until the new policy was approved.{{cite web|url=http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=87365 |title=Marshall Library Board Votes to Adopt Materials Selection Policy |access-date=October 12, 2006 |last=Brady |first=Matt |date=October 12, 2006 |work=Newsarama |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061119203935/http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=87365 |archive-date=November 19, 2006 }}{{cite news

|first = Zach

|last = Sims

|title = Library board votes to remove 2 books while policy for acquisitions developed

|url = http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1172698.html

|work = The Marshall Democrat-News

|date = October 12, 2006

|access-date = October 12, 2006

|archive-date = March 9, 2016

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160309172740/http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1172698.html

|url-status = dead

}} The committee "decided not to assign a prejudicial label or segregate [the books] by a prejudicial system", and presented a materials selection policy to the board.{{cite news

|first = Rachel

|last = Harper

|title = Library board ready to approve new materials selection policy

|url = http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1186860.html

|work = The Marshall Democrat-News

|date = January 25, 2007

|access-date = January 26, 2007

|archive-date = March 9, 2016

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160309164152/http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1186860.html

|url-status = dead

}}{{cite news

|first = Rachel

|last = Harper

|title = Library policy has first reading

|url = http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1188755.html

|work = The Marshall Democrat-News

|date = February 8, 2007

|access-date = March 5, 2007

|archive-date = March 11, 2016

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160311045230/http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1188755.html

|url-status = dead

}} On March 14, 2007, the Marshall Public Library Board of Trustees voted to return both Fun Home and Blankets to the library's shelves. Bechdel described the attempted banning as "a great honor", and described the incident as "part of the whole evolution of the graphic-novel form."[https://www.tcj.com/the-alison-bechdel-interview/ Emmert], p. 39. Retrieved on August 6, 2007.

In 2008, an instructor at the University of Utah placed Fun Home on the syllabus of a mid-level English course, "Critical Introduction to English Literary Forms".{{cite news |first=JoSelle |last=Vanderhooft |title=Anti-Porn Group Challenges Gay Graphic Novel |url=http://gaysaltlake.com/news/2008/04/07/anti-porn-group-challenges-gay-graphic-novel/ |work=QSaltLake |date=April 7, 2008 |access-date=July 28, 2013 }} One student objected to the assignment, and was given an alternate reading in accordance with the university's religious accommodation policy. The student subsequently contacted a local organization called "No More Pornography", which started an online petition calling for the book to be removed from the syllabus.{{cite news |first=Sarah |last=Dallof |title=Students protesting book used in English class |url=https://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2952660 |publisher=KSL-TV |date=March 27, 2008 |access-date=April 16, 2008 }} Vincent Pecora, the chair of the university's English department, defended Fun Home and the instructor. The university said that it had no plans to remove the book.

In 2013, Palmetto Family Council, a conservative South Carolina group affiliated with Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, challenged the inclusion of Fun Home as a reading selection for incoming freshmen at the College of Charleston.{{cite news |title=Palmetto Family conservative group concerned about College of Charleston's freshman book selection |first=Diane |last=Knich |url=http://www.postandcourier.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20130725%2FPC16%2F130729588%2F1177%2Fpalmetto-family-conservative-group-concerned-about-college-of-charlestons-freshman-book-selection |newspaper=The Post and Courier |date=July 25, 2013 |access-date=July 28, 2013}}{{cite news |title=College of Charleston freshman book questioned |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.abcnews4.com/story/22939060/college-of-charleston-freshman-book-questioned |newspaper=WCIV |date=July 26, 2013 |access-date=July 28, 2013}}{{cite news |title=CofC freshman book ruffles conservative group's feathers |first=Paul |last=Bowers |url=http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/cofc-freshman-book-ruffles-conservative-groups-feathers/Content?oid=4686269 |newspaper=Charleston City Paper |date=July 26, 2013 |access-date=July 28, 2013}} Palmetto Family president Oran Smith called the book "pornographic". Bechdel disputed this, saying that pornography is designed to cause sexual arousal, which is not the purpose of her book. The controversy made its way to the Senate and House of Representatives. In the Senate they were voting on whether or not to make budget cuts to the summer reading program for incoming freshmen. Senator Brad Hutto used a four-hour filibuster to delay the voting process and felt that this was "a challenge to academic freedom and an act that would shame our state."{{Cite news |url=https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/story/flawed-compromise-emerges-in-fun-home-controversy?oid=4918036 |title=Flawed compromise emerges in Fun Home controversy |last=Piepmeier |first=Alison |date=May 12, 2014 |newspaper=Charleston City Paper |access-date=August 11, 2021}} There was an alternative for students who find that the selection of reading chosen by their institution is offensive: they are offered a College Reads! as the alternative. The past president of College of Charleston, Glenn McConnell, had contradicting opinions on Fun Home. When asked about the reading he stated that professors have academic freedom when it comes to what they teach in the classroom, but they should also ask themselves if it is worth it and "it certainly wouldn't be my book of choice." The punishment given to the college was a cut to funding to prevent the institution from exploring identity and sexuality. Many tried to fight this because it was seen as a restriction and became a "battlefield in a full-blown culture war."{{Cite web|first=Paul |last=Bowers|title=In Banned Books class at College of Charleston, Salman Rushdie meets Captain Underpants|url=https://www.postandcourier.com/news/in-banned-books-class-at-college-of-charleston-salman-rushdie-meets-captain-underpants/article_400dd6c8-c1a3-11e8-b5d3-03689d2ad744.html|access-date=August 8, 2021|website=Post and Courier|date=September 26, 2018 |language=en}}

College provost George Hynd and associate provost Lynne Ford defended the choice of Fun Home, pointing out that its themes of identity are especially appropriate for college freshmen. However, seven months later, the Republican-led South Carolina House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee cut the college's funding by $52,000, the cost of the summer reading program, to punish the college for selecting Fun Home.{{cite news |last=Adcox |first=Seanna |date=February 19, 2014 |title=SC lawmakers vote to punish colleges' book choices |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/SC-legislators-want-to-punish-2-colleges-in-budget-5249686.php |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=February 21, 2014 }}{{cite news |last=Borden |first=Jeremy |date=February 20, 2014 |title=Palmetto Sunrise: College of Charleston dollars cut for 'promotion of lesbians' |url=http://blog.postandcourier.com/palmetto-politics/2014/02/20/palmetto-sunrise-college-charleston-dollars-cut-promotion-lesbians/ |newspaper=The Post and Courier |location=Charleston, SC |access-date=February 21, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140221064315/http://blog.postandcourier.com/palmetto-politics/2014/02/20/palmetto-sunrise-college-charleston-dollars-cut-promotion-lesbians/ |archive-date=February 21, 2014 }} Rep. Garry Smith, who proposed the cuts, said that in choosing Fun Home the university was "promoting the gay and lesbian lifestyle".{{cite news |last=Driscoll |first=Molly |date=February 28, 2014 |title=Alison Bechdel's memoir 'Fun Home' runs into trouble with the South Carolina House of Representatives |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0228/Alison-Bechdel-s-memoir-Fun-Home-runs-into-trouble-with-the-South-Carolina-House-of-Representatives |newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor |location=Boston |access-date=March 11, 2014 }} Rep. Stephen Goldfinch, another supporter of the cuts, said, "This book trampled on freedom of conservatives. ... Teaching with this book, and the pictures, goes too far."{{cite news |last=Shain |first=Andrew |date=March 15, 2014 |title=Lawmakers to S.C. colleges: Choose freedom or funding |url=http://www.thestate.com/2014/03/15/3328744/lesson-learned-sc-colleges-face.html |newspaper=The State |location=Columbia, SC |publisher=McClatchy |access-date=March 25, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325070342/http://www.thestate.com/2014/03/15/3328744/lesson-learned-sc-colleges-face.html |archive-date=March 25, 2014 |url-status=dead }} Bechdel called the funding cut "sad and absurd" and pointed out that Fun Home "is after all about the toll that this sort of small-mindedness takes on people's lives."{{cite news |last=Deahl |first=Rachel |date=February 26, 2014 |title=Bechdel Reacts to 'Fun Home' Controversy in So. Carolina |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/61201-bechdel-reacts-to-fun-home-controversy-in-so-carolina.html#path/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/61201-bechdel-reacts-to-fun-home-controversy-in-so-carolina.html |newspaper=Publishers Weekly |access-date=March 11, 2014 }} The full state House of Representatives subsequently voted to retain the cuts.{{cite news |last=Adcox |first=Seanna |date=March 10, 2014 |title=SC House refuses to restore college cuts for books |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/SC-House-refuses-to-restore-college-cuts-for-book-5303725.php |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=March 11, 2014 }} College of Charleston students and faculty reacted with dismay and protests to the proposed cuts, and the college's Student Government Association unanimously passed a resolution urging that the funding be restored.{{cite news |last=Catalano |first=Trevor |date=March 24, 2014 |title=Students and Faculty React to Budget Cuts Due to Unsupported Material |url=http://site.cisternyard.com/2014/03/24/students-and-faculty-react-to-budget-cuts-due-to-unsupported-material/ |newspaper=CisternYard Media |location=Charleston, SC |access-date=March 25, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325071702/http://site.cisternyard.com/2014/03/24/students-and-faculty-react-to-budget-cuts-due-to-unsupported-material/ |archive-date=March 25, 2014 }}{{cite news|last=Langley |first=Cuthbert |date=March 18, 2014 |title=ACLU enters "College Reads!" debate as State Rep. apologizes for harsh email |url=http://www.counton2.com/story/25012229/aclu-enters-colllege-reads-debate |newspaper=WCBD-TV |location=Charleston, SC |publisher=Media General |access-date=March 25, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325070210/http://www.counton2.com/story/25012229/aclu-enters-colllege-reads-debate |archive-date=March 25, 2014 }}{{cite news |last=Elmore |first=Christina |date=March 29, 2014 |title=Protesters rally against proposed book-linked budget cuts at the College of Charleston |url=http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140329/PC16/140329274/1006/protesters-rally-against-proposed-book-linked-budget-cuts-c-of-c |newspaper=The Post and Courier |location=Charleston, SC |publisher=Evening Post Industries |access-date=March 31, 2014 }} A coalition of ten free-speech organizations wrote a letter to the South Carolina Senate Finance Committee, urging them to restore the funds and warning them that "[p]enalising state educational institutions financially simply because members of the legislature disapprove of specific elements of the educational program is educationally unsound and constitutionally suspect".{{cite news |last=Armitage |first=Hugh |date=March 24, 2014 |title=South Carolina warned over "unconstitutional" Fun Home uni cuts |url=http://www.digitalspy.com/comics/news/a559805/south-carolina-warned-over-unconstitutional-fun-home-uni-cuts.html |newspaper=Digital Spy |location=London |publisher=Hearst Magazines UK |access-date=March 25, 2014 }}{{cite news |last=Kingkade |first=Tyler |date=March 18, 2014 |title=These College Budget Cuts Risk Violating The First Amendment, State Lawmakers Are Warned |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/18/south-carolina-college-budget-cuts-lgbt-books_n_4986234.html |newspaper=Huffington Post |location=New York |access-date=March 25, 2014 }} The letter was co-signed by the National Coalition Against Censorship, the ACLU of South Carolina, the American Association of University Professors, the Modern Language Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Association of American Publishers, the National Council of Teachers of English and the American Library Association.{{cite web |url=http://ncac.org/incident/ncac-aclu-letter-urges-s-c-legislature-to-restore-funding-to-universities-with-lgbt-curricula/ |title=Letter Urges S.C. Legislature to Restore Funding to Universities with LGBT Curricula |last1=O'Connor |first1=Acacia |date=March 18, 2014 |publisher=National Coalition Against Censorship |access-date=March 25, 2014}} After a nearly week-long debate in which Fun Home and Bechdel were compared to slavery, Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler, the state Senate voted to restore the funding, but redirect the funds towards study of the United States Constitution and The Federalist Papers; the university was also required to provide alternate books to students who object to an assignment due to a "religious, moral or cultural belief".{{cite news |last=Borden |first=Jeremy |date=May 7, 2014 |title=Sen. Brad Hutto filibuster delays decision on College of Charleston 'Fun Home' budget cuts; GOP calls book pornography |url=http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140507/PC1610/140509456 |newspaper=The Post and Courier |location=Charleston, SC |publisher=Evening Post Industries |access-date=May 15, 2014 }}{{cite news |last=Borden |first=Jeremy |date=May 13, 2014 |title=S.C. Senate votes to fund teaching U.S. Constitution as compromise on book cuts at College of Charleston |url=http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140513/PC1603/140519714/1005/teach-history-senate-votes-in-book-debate-fun-home-drama-brings-deal-to-use-funds-for-study-of-constitution |newspaper=The Post and Courier |location=Charleston, SC |publisher=Evening Post Industries |access-date=May 15, 2014 }}{{cite news |last=McLeod |first=Harriet |date=May 13, 2014 |title=South Carolina Senate won't cut college budgets over gay-themed books |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/r-south-carolina-senate-wont-cut-college-budgets-over-gay-themed-books-2014-13 |newspaper=Business Insider |agency=Reuters |access-date=May 15, 2014 }} Governor Nikki Haley approved the budget measure penalizing the university.{{cite news |last=Thomason |first=Andy |date=June 16, 2014 |title=S.C. Governor Upholds Penalties for Gay-Themed Books in State Budget |url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/s-c-governor-upholds-penalties-for-gay-themed-books-in-state-budget/79865 |newspaper=The Chronicle of Higher Education |location=Washington, DC |access-date=July 2, 2014 }}

In 2015, the book was assigned as summer reading for the incoming class of 2019 at Duke University. Several students objected to the book on moral and/or religious grounds.{{cite news |last=Ballentine|first=Claire|date=August 21, 2015 |title=Freshmen skipping 'Fun Home' for moral reasons|url=http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2015/08/freshmen-skipping-fun-home-for-moral-reasons |newspaper=The Duke Chronicle |location=Durham, NC |access-date=August 24, 2015 }}

In 2018, parents challenged Fun Home in the Watchung Hills Regional High School curriculum. The challenge was rejected, and the book remained in the school. One year later, a lawsuit was filed in May 2019 against the administrators of the school asking for removal of the book. The lawsuit claims that if the book is not removed, "minors will suffer irreparable harm and that New Jersey statutes will be violated."{{Cite web|url=http://cbldf.org/2019/05/lawsuit-demands-fun-home-removed/|title=Lawsuit Demands Fun Home Removed {{!}} Comic Book Legal Defense Fund|date=May 15, 2019 |language=en-US|access-date=December 15, 2019}} After the Watchung Hills High School challenge, administrators at nearby North Hunterdon High School removed Fun Home from their libraries as well, but the book was later restored in February 2019.{{Cite web|url=http://cbldf.org/2019/02/victory-fun-home-restored-in-new-jersey-high-schools/|title=Victory! Fun Home Restored in New Jersey High Schools {{!}} Comic Book Legal Defense Fund|date=February 26, 2019 |language=en-US|access-date=December 15, 2019}}

In January 2022, the Wentzille school board in Missouri voted 4–3 to ban Fun Home, going against the review committee's 8–1 vote to retain the book in the district's libraries.{{Cite web|last=Schaub|first=Michael|date=2022-01-25|title=Missouri School District Bans Toni Morrison Book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/missouri-school-district-bans-toni-morrison-book/|access-date=2022-01-26|website=Kirkus Reviews|language=en}} The ban included three other books, as well: George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, and Kiese Laymon's Heavy.

In May 2022, parents challenged Fun Home in the Rapid City Area Schools, claiming the book is "pornographic" and the overall picture of having books similar to Fun Home in schools is a "Marxist Revolution." Some teachers disagreed because the book represents the highly marginalized voices of the LGBTQ+ community. The school board decided to temporarily remove the book.{{Cite web |last=Grossman |first=Hannah |date=2022-05-05 |title=South Dakotans flame school board meeting over 'pornographic' books: 'This is the Marxist global revolution' |url=https://www.foxnews.com/media/south-dakota-flame-school-board-meeting-over-pornographic-books-marxist-revolution |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=Fox News |language=en-US}}

In January 2023, Sheboygan South High School principal, Kevin Formolo, removed Fun Home from the school's library after community members expressed outrage about the book's inclusion. Supporters of the principal's decision say the sexual content of the book is inappropriate in a school setting. Others equated the removal of the book from the school's library to discrimination.

Two other books were also removed from the library by the principal, Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? and Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer.{{Cite web |last=Goldbeck |first=Madison |date=2023-01-24 |title=Sheboygan school pulls 3 books from library after outrage over sexual content

|url=https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/sheboygan-school-pulls-3-books-from-library-after-outrage-over-sexual-content |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=WTMJ4 |language=en-US}}

{{main article|Fun Home (musical)}}

Fun Home has been adapted into a stage musical, with a book by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori. The musical was developed through a 2009 workshop at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and workshopped in 2012 at the Sundance Theatre Lab and The Public Theater's Public Lab.{{cite news |last=Hetrick |first=Adam |date=August 4, 2009 |title=Ojai Playwrights Conference Begins in CA; Kron and Tesori Pen New Musical |url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/131641-Ojai-Playwrights-Conference-Begins-in-CA-Kron-and-Tesori-Pen-New-Musical |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131104104324/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/131641-Ojai-Playwrights-Conference-Begins-in-CA-Kron-and-Tesori-Pen-New-Musical |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 4, 2013 |newspaper=Playbill |access-date=November 3, 2013 }}{{cite news |last=Boehm |first=Mike |date=July 10, 2012 |title=Cherry Jones, Raul Esparza give Sundance Theatre Lab star power |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-xpm-2012-jul-10-la-et-cm-cherry-jones-raul-esparza-give-sundance-theatre-lab-star-power-20120709-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=November 3, 2013}}{{cite news|last=Hetrick |first=Adam |date=September 11, 2012 |title=Jeanine Tesori-Lisa Kron Musical Fun Home Will Debut at the Public; Judy Kuhn to Star |url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/169893-Jeanine-Tesori-Lisa-Kron-Musical-Fun-Home-Will-Debut-at-the-Public-Judy-Kuhn-to-Star |newspaper=Playbill |access-date=November 4, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020013915/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/169893-Jeanine-Tesori-Lisa-Kron-Musical-Fun-Home-Will-Debut-at-the-Public-Judy-Kuhn-to-Star |archive-date=October 20, 2013}} Bechdel did not participate in the musical's creation. She expected her story to seem artificial and distant on stage, but she came to feel that the musical had the opposite effect, bringing the "emotional heart" of the story closer than even her book did.{{cite web |last1=Bechdel |first1=Alison |title=Alison Bechdel Draws a Fun Home Coda |url=https://www.vulture.com/2015/04/alison-bechdel-fun-home/slideshow |website=Vulture |access-date=January 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126221012/https://www.vulture.com/2015/04/alison-bechdel-fun-home/slideshow/ |archive-date=January 26, 2019 |url-status=dead }}

The musical debuted Off-Broadway at The Public Theater on September 30, 2013. The production was directed by Sam Gold and starred Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn as Bruce and Helen Bechdel. The role of Alison was played by three actors: Beth Malone played the adult Alison, reviewing and narrating her life, Alexandra Socha played "Medium Alison" as a student at Oberlin, discovering her sexuality, and Sydney Lucas played Small Alison, at age 10. It received largely positive reviews,{{cite news|last=Brantley|first=Ben|title=Family as a Hall of Mirrors| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/theater/reviews/fun-home-a-new-musical-at-the-public-theater.html|access-date=October 23, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 23, 2013}}{{cite news|last=Dziemianowicz|first=Joe|title="Fun Home," theater review. Public Theater musical about a small-town family is dark but magnificent|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/fun-home-theater-review-article-1.1492941|access-date=October 23, 2013|newspaper=New York Daily News|date=October 22, 2013}}{{cite news|last=McNulty|first=Charles|title=Awkwardness adds to 'Fun Home' charm Muddled beginning, smudgy staging and distracting songs in this musical ultimately add up to a tender honesty.|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-fun-home-review,0,2137887.story#axzz2iaWFTM87|access-date=October 23, 2013|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=October 23, 2013}} and its limited run was extended several times until January 12, 2014. The musical was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; it also won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, and the Obie Award for Musical Theater.{{cite web |url=http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Drama |title=Drama |author= |date=April 14, 2014 |website=The Pulitzer Prizes |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=May 16, 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://lortelaward.com/2014nominees.htm |title=2014 Nominations |date=May 4, 2014 |website=The Lucille Lortel Awards |access-date=May 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508081340/http://www.lortelaward.com/2014nominees.htm |archive-date=May 8, 2014 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |last=Healy |first=Patrick |date=May 5, 2014 |title=Critics' Circle Names 'Fun Home' Best Musical |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/critics-circle-names-fun-home-best-musical/ |newspaper=New York Times |access-date=May 16, 2014 }}{{cite news |last=Lucchesi |first=Nick |date=May 19, 2014 |title=Village Voice Announces Winners of 59th Annual Obie Awards, Names Tom Sellar Lead Theater Critic |url=http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/05/village_voice_announces_winners_of_59th_annual_obie_awards_names_tom_sellar_lead_theater_critic.php |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |access-date=May 21, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521035950/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/05/village_voice_announces_winners_of_59th_annual_obie_awards_names_tom_sellar_lead_theater_critic.php |archive-date=May 21, 2014 }} Alison Bechdel drew a one-page comic about the musical adaptation for the newspaper Seven Days.{{cite news |last=Bechdel |first=Alison |author-link=Alison Bechdel |date=July 2, 2014 |title=Fun Home! The Musical! |url=http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/fun-home-the-musical/Content?oid=2393463 |newspaper=Seven Days |location=Burlington, Vermont |publisher=Da Capo Publishing |access-date=July 23, 2014 }}

A Broadway production opened at Circle in the Square Theatre in April 2015. The production won five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Musical,{{cite news|last=Sims|first=David|title=Fun Home's Success Defines the 2015 Tony Awards|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/06/fun-home-caps-a-triumphantly-diverse-tony-awards/395153/|access-date=June 8, 2015|newspaper=The Atlantic|date=June 8, 2015}} and ran for 26 previews and 582 regular performances until September 10, 2016, with a national tour that began in October 2016.Gordon, Jessica Fallon. [http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Coverage-FUN-HOME-Closes-on-Broadway-with-Emotional-Final-Curtain-Call-20160911 "Photo Coverage: Fun Home Closes on Broadway with Emotional Final Curtain Call"], BroadwayWorld.com, September 11, 2016 Kalle Oskari Mattila, in The Atlantic, argued that the musical's marketing campaign "obfuscates rather than clarifies" the queer narrative of the original novel.Mattila, Kalle Oskari. [https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/04/branding-queerness-the-curious-case-of-fun-home/479532 "Selling Queerness: The Curious Case of Fun Home"], The Atlantic, April 25, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2017

In January 2020, Jake Gyllenhaal and a partner secured the rights to produce a film version of the musical, planning to star Gyllenhaal as Bruce Bechdel with Sam Gold directing and Amazon MGM Studios distributing.Lefkowitz, Andy. [https://www.broadway.com/buzz/198003/jake-gyllenhaal-to-produce-star-in-movie-musical-adaptation-of-fun-home "Jake Gyllenhaal to Produce & Star in Movie Musical Adaptation of Fun Home"], Broadway.com, January 3, 2020 In 2023, according to Alison Bechdel, she will not have direct involvement on the project and Gyllenhaal was no longer involved in any upcoming film adaptation. She did, however, say "They're still trying to make this movie happen, but it will have a different star."Lickteig, Mary Ann. [https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/cartoonist-alison-bechdel-headlines-the-green-mountain-book-festival/Content?oid=39188274 "Cartoonist Alison Bechdel Headlines the Green Mountain Book Festival"], Seven Days, September 27, 2023 However, on April 2, 2024, Gyllenhaal was confirmed to remain involved on the film as a producer when he and his Nine Stories Productions banner signed a first-look deal with Amazon MGM.{{cite web | url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/jake-gyllenhaal-movies-amaozon-mgm-1235864460/ | title=Jake Gyllenhaal's Nine Stories Signs First-Look Deal with Amazon MGM | website=The Hollywood Reporter | date=April 2, 2024 }}

{{Portal|Comics|Feminism}}

• List of feminist comic books
• Dykes to Watch Out For
• Portrayal of women in comics

{{reflist | colwidth=30em}}

• [http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/bechdel/ Houghton Mifflin's Fun Home press release], with excerpts from the book and video of Bechdel's artistic process
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070715222036/http://www.dykestowatchoutfor.com/index.php dykestowatchoutfor.com], author Alison Bechdel's blog and official website
• [http://www.slate.com/id/2162410/ What the Little Old Ladies Feel: How I told my mother about my memoir.] Slate article by Bechdel

{{GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book}}

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