Pretending is Lying/Dominique Goblet: New York Journal of Books Review

My thoughts on a most-interesting new graphic memoir, in today's New York Journal of Books. Full review can be found here.

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Alison Bechdel's Genius

This morning, at last, I read Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel's first graphic memoir. 

Two words:

Blown away.  

By the complexity and vulnerability of this story.  By Bechdel's literate and fascinating mind.  By the structure of this book.  By the many shadings within the illustrations.  How in the world did Bechdel make this book, I wondered.  I am, no doubt, the last to wonder.

Fortunately, she's out there on YouTube, answering the question. 

Perhaps because I am married to a man whose drawings I love, but whose cautions are endless—I am not an illustrator, he will say, repeatedly that dark look he gets in his eyes—I am fascinated by Bechdel's description of the work that she does—layer by layer by layer by layer.  Hundreds of images are required to tell her story.  Look at how she approaches a single one. 

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