I always feel a little dumb after reading one of Bechdel's novels. This one, especially.

While I got the gist of things, the constant psychological connections Bechdel makes from what she's read to moments in her life threw me off, because I just didn't understand what the hell they were saying. ( )

I read Bechdel's previous graphic novel Fun Home about two years ago and loved its delightfully complex weaving of narratives from the past and present. Are You My Mother took that complexity and upped it by like 500%. Bechdel must have enabled herself to become totally neurotic in order to create this masterful piece of memoir/psychological analysis. Due to the insane amount of information packed in, it should by all means be a dumpstire fire. But it's not, and it's going to take me another 4 read-throughs to fully appreciate that. ( )

Interesting graphic novel about a complex mother - daughter relationship. ( )

I think I will want to read this one again in a few months. ( )

Wow, this book was frustrating. Under the guise of writing about her mother, Alison Bechdel mostly explored A) her own insecurity and B) pyschoanalysis. So much psychoanalysis. Mostly Winnicott. So, I mean, on the one hand, psychoanalysis is a widely debunked borderline pseudo-science. And on the other hand, it seems to have loaned Alison Bechdel a lot of insight. Maybe not so much personal growth in that she's still writing books "about her mother" about psychoanalysis, including transcribed passages of her life that she was explicitly told not to write down by her psychoanalysis (including transcribing that she's not supposed to be writing them down.) But I have a lot of insight into the inner life of Alison Bechdel now?

This memoir is harsh, honestly. Not really so much on Alison Bechdel's mother, who comes off feeling pretty distant for an ostensible focal point, but on Alison herself, who pulls no punches in depicting her insecurity, fear of commitment and transference to psychiatrists. It was pretty uncomfortable reading. ( )