Alison Bechdel

American (98) anthology (330) autobiography (400) biography (265) cartoons (241) comic (385) comic strips (176) comics (1,806) Comics & Graphic Novels (110) coming of age (129) comix (91) dtwof (112) essays (105) family (358) feminism (127) fiction (621) gay (262) glbt (187) graphic (192) graphic memoir (117) graphic novel (2,141) graphic novels (540) homosexuality (137) humor (707) lesbian (858) lesbians (188) lgbt (406) LGBTQ (360) memoir (1,196) non-fiction (817) queer (632) read (306) relationships (90) sexuality (123) short stories (128) signed (89) suicide (96) to-read (922) USA (128) women (141)

Common Knowledge

Legal name: Bechdel, Alison
Birthdate: 1960-09-10
Gender: female
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Beech Creek, Pennsylvania, USA
Places of residence: Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, USA
Burlington, Vermont, USA
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
New York, New York, USA
Education: Oberlin College (1981)
Bard College
Simon's Rock College
Occupations: cartoonist
author
Awards and honors: MacArthur Fellowship (2014)
Short biography: Bechdel began keeping a journal at age ten. She is married to Holly Rae Taylor.
Disambiguation notice: Originator of the Bechdel test, a measure of the representation of women in fiction. -Nevov

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Alison Bechdel's desert island top 10 in Other People's Libraries (February 2016)

Reviews

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

I always feel a little dumb after reading one of Bechdel's novels. This one, especially.

While I got the gist of things, the constant psychological connections Bechdel makes from what she's read to moments in her life threw me off, because I just didn't understand what the hell they were saying.

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owlbeyourfriend | 99 other reviews | Apr 24, 2024 |

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

A truly moving memoir that effortlessly weaves the art and the story together. I was very impressed with the technical skill and the beauty of the drawing. The story too manages to be both tragic and in some ways uplifting in the end. An amazing portrait of the intricate complexities of families and growing up.

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rknickme | 367 other reviews | Mar 31, 2024 |

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

I read Bechdel's previous graphic novel Fun Home about two years ago and loved its delightfully complex weaving of narratives from the past and present. Are You My Mother took that complexity and upped it by like 500%. Bechdel must have enabled herself to become totally neurotic in order to create this masterful piece of memoir/psychological analysis. Due to the insane amount of information packed in, it should by all means be a dumpstire fire. But it's not, and it's going to take me another 4 read-throughs to fully appreciate that.… (more)

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boopingaround | 99 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |

The Best American Comics 2011 (The Best American… by Alison Bechdel

I wish I liked this collection more than I did, as a fan of Bechdel's work in general, and also because cishet dudes were being such assholes about the stories in it being "feminist homosexual propaganda". They're not, broadly speaking--I would have liked it better if they were, probably.

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localgayangel | 6 other reviews | Mar 5, 2024 |

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