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.

superzelda: the graphic life of zelda fitzgerald. tiziana lo porto and danielle marotta.

i was so excited when i read about "superzelda", a graphic (love the pun!) novel about zelda fitzgerald! it had to be amazing!  and it was!! 

this is the perfect introduction to people new to the amazing yet tragic mess that is zelda fitzgerald.  it covers all of her life. the high points when she was the world's favorite flapper to the low points with her mental illness.  essentially it is pretty much is an illustrated cliffnotes for nancy milford's "zelda" but i mean what is wrong with illustrated cliffnotes?

i will say that i did learn one new thing from this graphic novel.  i knew scott wasn't allowed burial in a catholic cemetery but didn't know that decision was reversed and he and zelda were moved.

here were my favorite parts:

i always admired zelda for being her own person.

their partying was notorious but love the inclusion of josephine baker in his drawing.

this was a recipe harper and brothers included in "recipes of famous women".  zelda was kind of cook!

the perfect ending to this book.

if you love zelda fitzgerald, you should check this out.  her life was quite amazing and this is a good overview of it.

the last tycoon. f. scott fitzgerald. (115)

i have read all of f. scott's fitzgerald's novels with the exception of "the last tycoon".  i skipped it because it was published posthumously.  novels that are published after an author's death seem incomplete to me.  sure there are notes and outlines that can help complete it but what if while the author was writing a new idea struck him/her than those outlines and notes would be pointless.  a novel should have the author's stamp of approval before it is released to the world.  

however, after reading nancy milford's "zelda", i decided to give in and read "the last tycoon".  while reading "zelda" i realized that all of fitzgerald's novels are pretty much autobiographies so i needed to read "the last tycoon" to get a glimpse into his life when he was in hollywood and zelda was institutionalized.  also milford mentioned that the love interest in "the last tycoon" was not based on zelda but fitzgerald's mistress at the time, sheliah graham.  due to this i felt i had to read fitzgerald take on his affair.  in addition to this it would also help give some background for my next fitzgerald read "beautiful fools" a novel by r. clifton spargo about a trip scott and zelda.  the trip takes place during the time period scott was living in hollywood and graham was his mistress.

though zelda did not know of graham, she knew kathleen was not modeled after her, as all of the previous fitzgerald female characters had been.  milford explained in her book that zelda did not like the heroine of "the last tycoon", kathleen.  and maybe all of my recent zelda reading has made me biased but i also did not like kathleen.  kathleen was unworthy of stahr's love, there was no piazza or wow to her other than her resemblance to his dead wife, minna.  oddly enough, milford explained that graham had a striking resemblance to zelda.  (i will expand on this in a bit).  there seemed to be no real chemistry between stahr and kathleen other than a physical attraction.  also kathleen seemed to have no backbone or heart, she didn't read as mysterious but a coward.   i didn't like how she kept her engagement a secret from stahr. i felt like  she played with stahr's emotions because she liked being in proximity to power.  the narrator explained how kathleen was "un-hollywood" but she still played games like she was part of the hollywood set.  kathleen was also a bit of a bore, she had relationships with interesting men but was not interesting herself.  maybe fitzgerald would have developed her more but as kathleen is, she does not deserve to be the object of stahr's affection.

however, if you read "the last tycoon" as autobiographical than the lack of actual chemistry between stahr and kathleen is a good thing because it demonstrated that fitzgerald's love for graham was superficial.  in the novel, stahr is a widow and his initial attraction to kathleen is because she looked like his dead wife.  as mentioned before, in real life graham looked like zelda, though zelda was not dead, her institutionalization must have felt like her death to fitzgerald.  stahr does not seem to be in love with kathleen but rather with the sentiment that she arose in him based one her likeness to minna.  it must have been the same for fitzgerald and graham.  as shown in milford's book, zelda's institualtionalizations was a burden on fitzgerald but he still loved her.  and though i do not condone fitzgerald's infidelity, i do not think he really loved graham.  i think she was a placeholder for his actual feelings for zelda, just as kathleen was for minna.  fitzgerald like stahr was not content with life and grasped onto a girl to hopefully find fulfillment.  even more odd, fitzgerald died without resolving his novel just like stahr died so we never get a resolution on his affair with kathleen.  however, i am going to say that stahr and kathleen's relationship would have amounted to nothing because like zelda for scott, minna was stahr's true love.  (i can and will admit that my interpretation of stahr's superficial love for kathleen is my need to have scott and zelda be the true love i think of it as, i mean i know they were a mess but there was something magical about them.)

"the last tycoon" also focused on hollywood and it's politics, not only in terms of the country (their is talk anout who is "red") but also within studios.  it was interesting to read about it though i didn't find it completely enthralling.  i also liked the narrator, cecilia, she reminded me of nick from "the great gatsby" both have an endearing naivety to them though cecilia does have a bit of a conniving streak.  

i also enjoyed reading the notes f. scott fitzgerald left for it.  it's amazing to see all the prework that goes into writing a novel.  i was shocked that he gave himself a word limit.  he wanted to keep it short like "the great gatsby".  i also loved how his characters have such depth backgrounds though we might not be shown all of it, fitzgerald at least saw them as a complete person.

i do wish fitzgerald was able to finish it.  i am not sure it would have been on the level of "the great gatsby" but i think not would have made for an excellent film.  one was made in 62, i think, i want to see it but it probably would have been better if it was based on a completed novel,