Bechdel is the author of the amazing graphic memoir "Fun Home" in which she explores her relationship with her closeted homosexual father. Here she focuses on her relationship with her mother. Introspective, insightful, witty, and literary. Recommended for those with an interest in dysfunctional family relationships.

Just the very best. An exploration of how trauma ripples down generations in a family and how self-expression is the only real means of breaking the cycle. I'm not doing it justice. Bechdel examines herself with an artist's eye, wondering why she is who she is. It is the best of biography, cartooning, and psychoanalysis, all in one.

Not an easy read, but a very important one, as the culture of therapy and analysis slowly spreads beyond the couch and the counselling room. A fine portrayal of the mysterious depths, bewildering challenges and helpful potential of inner work. Less accessible than "Fun Home", but every bit as significant - if not more. Fascinated to learn about Mr. Winnicott! Grateful for the introduction.

Wanted to really love this, but it just couldn't compare to her debut memoir, Fun Home. Alison Bechdel explores her relationship with her mother, as well as her life in therapy. The mother sections are great, the therapy sections a little dry. Unfortunately, the two stories are intertwined, so you have to pay attention to both.

Alison Bechdel is a comics pioneer. I loved the collections of her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which was a break-through work in comic culture featuring two of my favourite themes; death and literature. So expectations of Are You My Mother were high and they were not disappointed. She just keeps getting better and better. stewaroby's best books of 2012 http://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/list/show/76138971_stewaroby/138117612_stewarobys_best_books_of_2012

As others have said, this book is much less interesting than Fun Home. I found the psychoanalytic stuff tedious, in fact. But it is beautifully drawn.

Are you my mother? has Alison exploring her difficult relationship with her mother – she can’t find in her Mom the motherly support she wants. It is a layered, complex and touching story that any son or daughter will recognise. She explores her own motivations and drives, and draws you in. I love how she also delves into the life and work of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and embeds him into her own story. Art and literature is there, in abundance. As Laura Miller’s review in The Guardian points out: "Like all of Bechdel’s work, Are You My Mother? is furiously literary, full of citations and quotations, and crafty symbolic parallels to the books its author is so often depicted reading with furrowed brow." Brilliant.

This is my first graphic novel, and I have to say, I ended the book with the same opinion of graphic novels I started with--what's all the fuss about? This book would have been uninteresting without graphics and it was uninteresting with graphics.

Was really excited about this book, since I loved Fun Home. The concept of a meta book did not hold my attention, and I longed for more narrative and story line. Still, her attention to detail in the drawings and her life are remarkable.

A generous, intelligent, emotionally and rationally well-examined life for us to witness. Well done, Ms. Bechdel!