Synopsis: Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home was a pop culture and literary phenomenon. Now, a second thrilling tale of filial sleuthery, this time about her mother: voracious reader, music lover, passionate amateur actor. Also a woman, unhappily married to a closeted gay man, whose artistic aspirations simmered under the surface of Bechdel's childhood . . . and who stopped touching or kissing her daughter good night, forever, when she was seven. Poignantly, hilariously, Bechdel embarks on a quest for answers concerning the mother-daughter gulf. It's a richly layered search that leads readers from the fascinating life and work of the iconic twentieth-century psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, to one explosively illuminating Dr. Seuss illustration, to Bechdel’s own (serially monogamous) adult love life. And, finally, back to Mother—to a truce, fragile and real-time, that will move and astonish all adult children of gifted mothers.
Review: Are You My Mother is the second book Alison put out in regards to her parents. Her first book, Fun Home talked mostly about her dad and her feelings about his death and homosexuality. Are You My Mother, as the name implies, focuses on Alison's relationship with her mother. Throughout the book, we see Alison struggle with various kinds of intimacy, even when she is in a long-term relationship. We also see how she depicts her mother when the distance between them begins to grow. Alison mentions how she started to transcribe the phone conversations between herself and her mother. This was fascinating, but also sad because it highlights how distant they had become.
The art in Are You My Mother is the same as Fun Home, but I liked the subtle difference of the colors. While Fun Home was mostly blue colors, Are You My Mother was done in mostly reds. I don't know if there's a connection due to the gender of the parents, but I liked this little difference. It helped the books stand out which was nice because both books talk about both parents and Alison's relationships with them. One just had a heavier emphasis on Alison's relationship with her mother and the other with her father. My favorite aspect of this book was seeing Alison interact with her therapists. She talks openly about having multiple couselors and I think that isn't regularly talked about, so I enjoyed it.
Another interesting depiction of Alison's childhood, but with a focus on her mother.
4 howls
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