Graphic Novel Round-Up: Marbles, Fun Home, Are You My Mother?

I have read 3 interesting graphic novels this summer, reviewed briefly below:

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me - Ellen Forney

Marbles is Ellen Forney's exploration of her struggles living as an artist with Bipolar I disorder (the more severe of the forms, characterized by true mania, as opposed to hypomania, and potential psychosis). More particularly, she wrestles with the question of whether or not Bipolar symptomatology is an essential part of her identity as an artist, integral to her work, something special that she shares with other renowned artists (the "Van Gogh club," as she calls it), or whether it is an illness to be treated and managed. Her story had personal resonance for me to some degree, and it was an interesting read, although I am not a huge fan of her style of illustration.



Fun Home - Alison Bechdel

In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel explores her developing queer identity against the backdrop of her father's repressed homosexuality and turbulent childhood. I found this novel utterly fascinating, and the graphic style highly evocative. Would definitely recommend.



Are You My Mother? - Alison Bechdel

Bechdel's second graphic novel is much more philosophical than the first, and I did not enjoy it as much. Some of the material was quite interesting, and I was inspired to purchase a copy of one of her sources (Miller's The Drama of the Gifted Child). Overall, however, I lamented that the book strayed so far from the personal narrative, and ruminated so extensively on (what I found to be at times rather dubious) psychology. However, her analysis of her fraught relationship with her mother was compelling, even painfully so, and I would still recommend it.