Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama

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English language

ISBN:
978-0-618-98250-9
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1 star (1 review)

Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama is a 2012 graphic memoir written and illustrated by Alison Bechdel, about her relationship with her mother. The book is a companion piece to her earlier work Fun Home, which deals with her relationship with her father. The book interweaves memoir with psychoanalysis and exploration of various literary works, particularly Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Its title alludes to the 1960 children's picture book Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman.

3 editions

reviewed Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

Review of 'Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama' on 'Storygraph'

1 star

I wish I could say I liked this book. I enjoyed Fun Home, and think that Bechdel is a remarkable writer.

But she starts the book by saying that she's going to write about her mother, and then starts talking about how she can't do that. She tries to pick out events out of her childhood and her mother's life, and writes about talking about it in psychoanalysis. This is, essentially, the entire book. Bechdel's conceptual framework clearly thinks that analysis is important, but for her it seems to be an end in itself.

Bechdel doesn't ask for her mother's permission to expose her private life and communication, but it turns out her mother is savvy enough to understand the book isn't about her at all. There's no great insight to be gained from her therapy, her analysis of therapy, her writing about her analysis of therapy, her writing about …