1st Optional Book Club Discussion: Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel - June 2012 (may contain spoilers)

[Dana *]

I enjoyed the first book about her father, but this book was just too over-wrought and introspective for me. Maybe I am not smart enough to understand all the references and connections, but it was just all taking away from the root of the story. Maybe the book is so clinical and cold because that is the life of the mother and daughter, and their relationship.

I was disappointed and had a hard time finishing this book.

I would still recommend her first book, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.

[Melki]

I live in the town where Alison Bechdel grew up, and our library doesn't even have it yet.

[Cyndi]

I just picked it up from the library today....

[Cyndi]

This book was great... but also far more clinical and self aware then the tale of Ms Bechdel's father.

The mother/daughter relationship through good, bad, indifference and finally acceptance on both sides was very well presented.

Now I really want to look into the whole Dykes to Watch Out For series. I cannot help but think that the added layers would be delicious!

[Mark]

I guess I agree with what most people are saying here in that I preferred Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic to this latest from Bechdel. "Fun Home" had more of the author's difficult childhood and more obvious conflict, which kept it interesting. This book is definitely more cerebral and more about her adult relationship with her mother and her many therapists than the strange world she grew up in which so many people were drawn to in the first book.

I liked the comparisons with Virginia Woolf's life and writing and the many connections she makes between what she's going through and the work of her favourite psychoanalyst. This was painstaking work and clearly part of her recovery from her strange childhood. Over time, she shows us the impact this has all had on her relationships, which was very subtle rather than in your face.

It wasn't larger than life drama, but the quiet, introspective archaeology of lifelong conflict that is slowly unearthed before us like the best mysteries - one clue at a time.