Fun Home + American Born Chinese

This week I read Fun Home and American Born Chinese, two stories that deal with a family story but in very different respects. Fun Home takes the path of a semi-autobiography that deals with sexuality and relationships with parents, while American Born Chinese focuses more on how others perceptions of a race. I really enjoyed reading both of these books, but for different reasons.

Fun Home was originally suggested to me by Nellie as something similar to Blankets but with a very different storyline. To say that the way that Bechdel portrays herself is different from the way that Thompson portrayed himself would be a great understatement. While Thompson's work is extremely self-centered, Bechdel shows how her father had affected her childhood, how he molded who she is now, and how their relationship unfolded. At first I felt the book was becoming more focused on her father than it was on herself with the way that she goes on about his obsession with their house and keeping it perfect. What makes her story so compelling is the hardships that she endures throughout her young life, and again, how those shape her. The story switches between her younger years and the time of her father's funeral. The title in itself is a clever play, and is further solidified when Bechdel begins to ask questions such as "who embalms the embalmer when he dies?". It also brings up the question of how much her environment has numbed her to such events, spending much of her childhood staying with family in a funeral home. What took me the most by surprise is how developed her relationship had become with her father once she started to appreciate literature in the way that he always had. For what seemed like a much closer, personal connection near the end, Bechdel took his passing in a surprisingly calm manner. Further, what I found to be a strange but still valid connection was her father's own sexual exploits being outed. Although what he was doing was terrible, it at least gave him something of a grasp on what Bechdel was going through when she came out. In this particular scene, she gains something of an acceptance from the parent who was the image of perfection throughout her time growing up. I really enjoyed reading this story, and Bechdel's very blunt and straightforward storytelling really shines in this book.

American Born Chinese dealt with stereotypes in a very different way. While the layout of the story was slightly confusing at first, the way that everything came together in the end was very well done, albeit completely unrealistic. The opening scene of Jin's first day at school immediately brought to mind reading the Boondocks anthology earlier this semester. Very much like Riley and Huey, Jin was prone to the misconceptions of the heavily white community that he had moved to. The stories of the Monkey King and Danny and Chin-Kee were more outrageous, but served a purpose to really bring home the point of the story. More specifically, reading through Danny and Chin-Kee at first read as borderline offensive. However, I still found these sections humorous based on the fact that it was really just poking fun at an exaggerated stereotype. In the end having Chin-Kee serve solely as the reminder of Danny's true heritage was a brilliant way of helping bring him back to what he should truly be concerned with. I felt that moreover this story really dealt with the idea of being an outsider, but growing to accept and appreciate said fact. What each separate story really concluded to was that there's no reason to hide who you are because it comes back to bite you in the ass regardless. Yang's use of the three converging storylines is beautifully done, and created a very pleasant read.