In the first few chapters of Fun Home, Allison Bechdel painstakingly recreates her childhood home. The house is not only constructed on pen and paper, but also through numerous descriptions of its every detail, especially as they relate to her father, Bruce, in many ways the architect of the house. The reader gets a very strong sense of what it would have been like to live in that house, no detail is too small to evade either of the Bechdels in their craftsmanship. Through this close look at where she grew up, Bechdel also investigates her father, using the house as a stand in for him. However, after the beginning of the book, the time that corresponds most closely with Bechdel's really young childhood, this device recedes into the background. As the Allison of the book matures, she becomes able to view her father in more broad terms, and the reader follows the same path. Fun Home is then able to reach outside of the actual house, and further into the life of its author.
In some of the early chapters of Fun Home, it's difficult to find a panel that doesn't have the Bechdel home in it in some form. To me at least, as I read I felt the strong presence of Bruce Bechdel in this portion of the book especially. The book is tied to the house in the early chapters, very similarly to how Allison feels about her childhood. Page 12 is a perfect example of this theme, the house becoming impossibly large next to tiny child-Allison. This section has to focus on Bruce, and even though Allison is the narrator, she's very much sidelined in the early chapters.
However, the book moves forward, narratively and chronologically (thankfully). We such a better sense of who Allison is, and we also get another look at Bruce, as Allison looks in on younger Allison looking back. Although I know the book is meant to be about her father, this portion was much appreciated because it gave me such a better sense of who Allison is, which is important because she so often compares herself to her father. The author's true character shines though clearly, and as she removes her narrative further and further away from her physical home, she also frames herself as moving away from her father. She refuses to be "stuck in the mud" the way her father was, while accepting at the same time that she could easily have become him.
You've brought up a lot of interesting points here—the house is almost like a representation of Bruce, in a way. For example, the illustration on page 12 of the house towering over Allison might represent how overwhelming Bruce's presence was in Alison's life, and even the phrase "stuck in the mud" that's used to describe Bruce can quite literally be applied to the house as well. Even though the house is just a house, it has a major impact on Bruce (and vice versa).
ReplyDeleteThis book seems really carefully constructed by Allison to tell the story of herself and her father, so it's kind of cool that her father's constructed version of their family and lives plays such an important role in characterizing him. The way you point out that the house and Allison's relationship with her home sort of mirrors the plot of the novel as a whole is really good I didn't notice that at all.
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