fun home: a family tragicomic. alison bechdel (298)

so i messed up!  when i went to nyc in may, there was buzz about a new broadway show called fun home.  i didn't research it, but from what i had seen, it seemed like a show about a family, and it didn't seem like something i would be into, so i didn't go.  however, after watching the fun home performance at the tony's, i realized that i made a huge mistake.

i, later, discovered after reading an article about a girl that was trying to get this work plus persepolis banned from her college course (talk about ignorance), that the broadway musical i missed out, was based on a graphic novel/memoir!  double regret.  so i decided to check out the novel, and hopefully catch fun home on my next nyc trip.

so from the tony's performance, i discovered that fun home was about a woman that discovered her father was gay after she came out to her parents.  i have to admit i was very excited when i got to the part of the book that tony's was based on.  it performance stayed trued to the memoir, and really wish i had seen it on broadway.

the story of alison's sexuality was complicated, because after sharing she was a lesbian with her parents, her mother told her the truth about her father.  in addition to this, her father's response was awkward and soon after he died when struck by a car.  alison believed that it may have been a suicide based on what had occurred with her.  i have to add that with no disrespect to alison, i didn't think her father committed suicide.  yes, he was reading that camus work at the time, which made a convincing case.  however, i felt that instead of wanting to commit suicide, he would have sought a new life, as a openly gay man.  kind of like hannah's dad on season 4 of girls.  he had lived so long with his secret, though he did get caught of it a handful of times, and his wife was fully aware that to suddenly end his life didn't make sense.  i feel that if that accident hadn't happened, he would have came out, he did express to alison that now was different for gays and lesbian now, that they were able to experience a freedom, he could not.  i feel he would have been hopeful about being there for his daughter versus wanting to end it all.  he did give her colette, which helped her realized she was a lesbian.  he wanted to help his daughter.  i think the reason why he was so distant initially, was to allow her to understand her sexuality in her own terms versus being forced upon by her dad.  being a gay father, he didn't want people to think that perhaps she made him gay.  again i feel bad for typing this, because alison seemed to think it was a suicide.  but i mean life is horrible and sometimes bad things just happen.

overall, i really enjoyed this memoir.  for those of you curious, the title fun home, came from alison's family for the funeral home that they ran.  speaking of the fun home, i, like the kids, loved the story of their grandmother about their father wandering out of into a field.  i also delighted in their delight of the oven part!  but that being said, i want to revisit this work, after i read the literary works that alison referenced.  i have never read ulysses so that went over my head.  i also need to read the importance of being earnest.  

on the topic of literary works, i absolutely loved alison's dad's love of the fitzgeralds.  just like him, after reading both of their works, i became obsessed with them.  there is something so glamorous about their wild times.  i need to read this side of paradise, but loved that we had both loved nancy milford's zelda biography.  i will also look into reading some colette.

this was an interesting read and i look forward to reading it after i visit the above works, to hopefully get a different take on the memoir.

i'll give you the sun. jandy nelson. (291)

my friend chris, first told me about this book, but when my best friend's sister, michelle posted it on facebook, i decided to check it out.

*spoilers in this entry*

i knew nothing of the premise, except that it was about twins.  the novel was told from the perspective of two twins, noah and jude.  i enjoyed the chapters from noah's perspective because they were filled with beautiful imagery.  since noah was artistic, he painted in his head. here are some examples of the images in his head:

when jude is upset about the idea of going to art school, "jude barfs bright blue fluorescent bard all over the table, but i'm the only one who notices."

or when jude is jealous and he paints portrait of her:  green with envy, "skin: lime. hair: chartreuse. eyes:  forest. allof her: green, green, green."

so colorful right?

i also love how he paints moments, here are a couple of them:

(self-portrait:  a window flies open in my chest)

(self-portrait: the boy hiding inside the boy hiding inside the boy)

(portrait:  mom sleepwalking into another life)

(family portrait:  assume the crash position)

(self-portrait:  boy hitches ride on passing comet)

i really wish this book was illustrated so that we could see the paintings in noah's mind.

jude's chapters were filled with the colorful wives tales of her grandmother's bible.

some samples of entries:

to avoid serious illness, keep an onion in your pocket

if a boy gives a girl an orange, her love for him will multiply

i enjoyed these superstitions as well.

so back to the novel, in the beginning, we are introduced to the twins, noah, the artsy, gay, oddball, and jude, the hot, popular, surfer chick.  their mother had presented the idea of them attending high school at an arts academy.  noah was elated especially since his mother was so excited about his talent, which made jude jealous.

cut to a couple years later and the family had done a 180.  jude was now the artsy loner attending art school while noah was athletic, popular and "normal" attending regular school.  also, their parents had separated and sadly their mother died in a car accident.

jude convinced her mother's ghost is destroying her art because as we later learned she never sent in her brother's application with her,  jude went to a famous sculptor, guillermo garcia, to learn to sculpt using something her mother's ghost couldn't break, rock.

her work with guillermo, ultimately resulted in the world getting straightened out for the two twins.  it was discovered that her mother and guillermo were lovers during their parents separation.  demonstrating that some people should be in your life.

there were also a handful of other subplots including noah's homosexuality.  he became friends with their neighbor, brian, and thought brian liked him back. however, an incident with jude and brian and 7 minutes in heaven, resulted in awkwardness between the twins. brian turned out to be gay too, but then in a fit of anger, noah outed him.  but luckily, brian was able to come out and find acceptance at his high school and he and noah became boyfriends! yay!

jude also had a love interest, who sounded hot, but i was concern about the age difference.  i mean i got swept up in their attraction by then it lost it appealed when one realized jude was like 16.  but i mean they were destined, his mom did predict their meeting.

i have to add that i loved the inclusion of plato's theory of split-aparts, it reminded me of hedwig.

also there was an incident of date rape with jude that was heartbreaking to read, but didn't get resolved other than jude going on a boy strike and confronting her abuser and telling him to never do what he did to another girl.

all in all, an enjoyable read.  it was predicable at times, but interesting and nice to see high schoolers tolerant of homosexuality.

ps i just discovered this gallery of the artwork mentioned in the novel: http://jandynelson.com/gallery/

after tupac and foster d. jacqueline woodson (265)

after reading brown girl dreaming, i was looking up jacqueline woodson's other works online and came across after tupac and foster d.  since i had seen a tupac exhibit at the grammy museum in february, i decided to check out this book.

the novel centered around the narrator and her best friend neeka's life and their friend d foster that entered their lives for a moment.  the narrator and neeka's parents are protective and do not allow the girls to leave the block so part of d's appeal was that she could travel on our own and around the city.  however, the girls learned that her life is not that idealistic.  due to her mother being unfit to take care of her, d had been in and out of foster care.  her foster mother at the time took good care of her but she shared stories with the girls of starving.  due to her experiences, d identified with tupac.  all the three girls love him but for d, his songs were about her life.  

i hate to admit this but i only recently saw for myself how tupac's work was pretty high brow considering he was a rapper. i mean he had a song about van gogh!  and i know that there are college courses based on his songs and poetry, but i never look into his work like i should.  this novel and the grammy exhibit reminded me that his writing is an important part of sharing the black experience of the nineties.  it is important that the history of others is told and i am glad that woodson lets young adults know that music can be a means of self discovery and expression.  i think about how much music was important for me in high school, how i would listen to songs that seemed to understand me.  it's important for kids to know that they have this outlet.

though i have to admit i am disappointed that tupac did serve time for sexual asault. the novel does address it but played up the fact that tupac only touched some girl's butt and that the judge was bias. i googled to look up what happen but i mean no one will really know. and as a feminist, i believe we can't blame the victim or try to slut shame her.

the thing that i liked most about this work was that one of neeka's brother, tash, was gay. they did call him sissy which i found as tat offensive but perhaps it was trying to be authentic. i mean woodson did use queen which i didn't bat at eye at but which i use.  i think it was great to see a strong gay character in this book.  granted he was incarcerated (though it wasn't his fault and he was released early because it was finally realized that he was not involved with the assault and robbery), his message was about being yourself and not trying to act like a thug and ending up in jail.  also tash was gay and proud and i was happy to read about it.

all in all, a great novel for young adults.  it demonstrated that not everyone and their experiences are the same but what is important are the connections that you make.

weetzie bat. francesca lia block.

so i was like 99.9% percent sure that i saw francesca lia block's weetzie bat on flavorpill, but i can not find a post.  i have found this amazing a "weird girl's reading list:  10 best outsider books for teenagers" that i will now add to my many list of books i need to read.  however, i know it wasn't this post that i learned of weetzie bat from because the cover is not the same.  though maybe the cover isn't why i got it? i just recognized the name.  anyway, who cares all that matter is that i have it.  and that i found it at the goodwill in delano! yes, in delano, and for like .79 i think.  talk about a deal!

so weetzie bat was supposed to be my final read of 2014.  it's only 113 pages and the book is a mini one so it's probably more like 50.  i started it on new years eve while waiting for my friend danny to finish his shopping at the amoeba in sf, however, i did not finish it before midnight struck.  (there was a lot of prep and prepartying on my nye). so instead of being my last book of 2014, it ended up being my first book of 2015 (i finished reading it while waiting for brunch on new years day!)

and can i just say that i love weetzie bat it's like this wild little adventures that takes place in the city that i love best, los angeles!  i mean on the first page, graumann's, the farmer's market and okie-dog are name-checked.  i texted my friend cody, who dragged me to okie-dog, a handful of nights, when i read that.  and it turns out his ex-stepmom had him reaad weetzie bat in high school!  (also i learned about ponyland which used to be an amusement park where the beverly center is now!)

so weetzie bat was a young high school girl that lives in shangri l.a., she had a blonde pixie haircut and dressed up in vintage dresses with taffeta or fringe, feather headdresses and moccasins (all the pre-coachella phenomenon.)  she befriended the hottest guy at school, dirk.  they spent a bunch of time hanging out, there was the promise of love in the air, and then it is discovered at the end of the chapter that dirk is gay!  the best ones are always gay! oh and i should clarify, no love in the hetero sense of boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, there is plenty of love between dirk and weetzie!

from dirk's grandmother, weetzie received a magic lamp.  a genie granted her three wishes and her life began to unfold.  i won't go into a rehashing of the plot, i mean it's 100 pages, you should check it out and i promise it won't take more than a day to finish.

i will say that i loved the story of dirk and duck, at the end of the novel. duck unable to cope with death of a friend to aids ran away to sf.  dirk just following instinct found him because duck was in his blood.  so sweet and what a wonderful point to make esp since blood became so scary due to aids.  

there is so much that happened in this novel and it was all weird and wonderful.  oh i just remember about how weetzie, dirk, and duck decided to have a child together!  loved that too.  it's a great little book and you should definitely pick it up or you can borrow mine.  hopefully i can make it through the rest of the series in 2015.  it was a great kick off book for the new year!

most talkative: stories from the front lines. andy cohen. (63)

i adore andy cohen. i literally laugh out loud (by myself) every single time i watch "watch what happens live". i wish one day to get a tweet or retweet from him. and the foursquare badge i desire the most is the andy cohen one. so when i found out he had a new book, i put my request in. 20 something transfers later and it was sent to delano especially for me.

surprisingly, i did not adore the book. the issue is that his writing is a bit too much. i get it (we are both geminis), he writes the way he talks which comes off cheesy. i mean this as no offense. i am the same way, whenever my friends compliment me on my yelp reviews, i politely explain its cos they know me and the average reader would be annoyed. and though i feel like i "know" andy cohen, the book at times had campy-ish moments.

it just wasn't a page turner nor did it have me laughing out loud. i think the best thing about this story was his coming out story and how he dealt with his homosexuality. he was honest and it is a great testament not only to homosexuality being innate with individuals but also to how accepting his family and friends were, that things are getting better. reading it reminded me of my friendship with miguel, and i wonder if he was ever nervous about coming out to me. though we had long discussions about his homosexuality during our senior year, he didn't tell me til our first year of college. i hope that as he decided to come out that he knew that regardless i would love him. i did enjoy reading about how cohen's roommate was so supportive, and how his mom and roommate used to keep tabs on him.

another thing that is interesting to think about was how scared his friends were about him contracting AIDS. i have a lot of gay friends and have never been scared of that. i guess it is because we live in a society where STDs are openly talked about and all of my friends are responsible and get tested frequently. so i am thankful that i never had to worry about them. (i also realize that it is unfair, i should worry about my straight friends too.)

i guess the issue is that i wanted it to be a bravo tell all and it wasn't. i love bravo, i even have a bravolebrities album on fb. however, the best part read like a bravo special because it was one. the chapter on the housewives reunion was pretty much that countdown of real housewives best reunion moments.

i wanted more dirt though i did learn that padma's husband was salman rushdie. it was interesting how the shows came together. it was nice to have light shed on russell armstrong's death but what about brandi in all that drama? also could have done without the oprah chapter but mainly cos i hate
oprah.

it was a nice brain break after reading "anna karenina" and it's good if you want a mindless read or something g to leave as a causal bathroom read.