Reader Score
88%
88% of readers
recommend this book
Settle in to this wittily illustrated soap opera (Bechdel calls it "half op-ed column and half endless serialized Victorian novel") of the lives, loves, and politics of Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and the rest of the cast of cult-fav characters. Most of them are lesbians, living in a midsize American city that may or may not be Minneapolis. Bechdel's brilliantly imagined countercultural band of friends--academics, social workers, bookstore clerks--fall in and out of love, negotiate friendships, raise children, switch careers, and cope with aging parents. Bechdel fuses high and low culture--from foreign policy to domestic routine, hot sex to postmodern theory--in a serial graphic narrative "suitable for humanists of all persuasions."
Alison Bechdel's cult following for her early comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For expanded wildly for her family memoirs, the New York Times bestselling and Time magazine #1 Book of the Year graphic memoir Fun Home, adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical, and Are You My Mother? Most recently, The Secret to Superman Strength was named a New York Times Best Graphic Novel of 2021. Bechdel has been named a MacArthur Fellow, among many other honors.
"…it becomes this incredible shadow of history of the American left and of queer culture in a way that is so joyous for any nonfiction writer to read, and just fun for anyone. It’s really, really wonderful kind of could-be lost American history, but isn’t lost because of her."
Muslim feminist with a strong dislike of sandwiches. She/Her.
Went to review Alison Bechdel’s ‘The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For’ but instead found this perfect review already written https://t.co/WnDvrf4pUg
Writer / Director / Coverer of waterfronts. Co-creator of The A List on Netflix. Creator of Lagging on CBBC / iPlayer Representation: @sheilland
Best things I saw / read this year: Books: The Netanyahus - Joshua Cohen The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For - Alison Bechdel (published 2008 but I read it this year.) Films: Triangle of Sadness Shttl TV: Yellowjackets (released 2021 but I saw it in January) The White Lotus 2
"This weighty and winning volume could well be titled 'Alison Bechdel's Greatest Hits.' It features faves from 11 past collections, as well as recent strips, and underscores why Bechel is at the forefront of the growing graphic movement." -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer --