BBGMBC Discussion Question #4 for Are You My Mother? By Alison Bechdel

The Beyond Busy Global Book Club discusses this book from June 4th – June 10th 2012, Join the discussion any time!

Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama is written and illustrated by Alison Bechdel and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2012.

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I had a complaint about this book as I was reading it, after I finished it, and, especially, after I read Fun Home, which I did in two nights following reading Are You My Mother? (And PS, I LOVED it. Highly recommend!)

But, on the other hand, and as another author, I can identify with the baggage that comes along with writing a second book. Granted this is not Bechdel’s second book ever, but it’s the second book that has garnered mass appeal. And let’s face it, mass appeal is a fickle thing.

So, at the same time that I identify with the pressure Bechdel was under to produce a book as good, if not better than Fun Home, I want to take her to task a bit on some of what I perceived as some of the shortcomings of the narrative.

Even as I tip-toe towards the taboo, critiquing another author, I just want to acknowledge that writing second books is incredibly challenging and fraught with opportunities to choke. And I don’t think Bechdel choked totally. I just think she could have been a little more…straightforward in the storytelling.

Okay, here goes. I read a review in the Los Angeles Times that articulates precisely how I felt about Are You My Mother? And since I  also just read Fun Home, it all made perfect sense to me.

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not read Fun Home, I suggest you stop, buy it, and read it, before you look at this review or respond to this discussion question.

Here’s the link to the review by David L. Ulin, if you still want to go there.

There, now I feel less guilty about bringing all of this up because I hopefully just created a small spike in this author’s next royalty payment.

Anyway here’s a quote from the review for those of you who don’t want to read it right now:

There’s so much talking here — talking about talking, talking about writing, talking about the dynamics of parents and children, talking about what everything means — that at times we lose the thread of the narrative altogether, ending up lost in the self-referential loops of Bechdel’s mind.

Did anyone else feel this way while reading this book? Cause I sure did.

And there, I said it. But not unkindly, I hope. I feel better now. And at least I know that one person, David L. Ulin, agrees with me.

What did you think?

While you are thinking, be sure to purchase Fun Home to read next!