As an extremely repressed, cerebral, queer person from a small town, this book hit hard! It's funny, it's tragic, it's an extremely empathetic, psychologically nuanced depiction of a dysfunctional, but not irredeemable father-daughter relationship. This is the kind of book that rewards an attentive reader, and a re-reader, so I will DEFINITELY be revisiting this book down the road.

Bechdel is a master of articulating/dissecting very complicated emotional reactions to trauma (For example: The way she would tried to induce reactions of grief and shock in others by sharing the details of her father's death, so she could vicariously feel something in her emotionally numbed state, stopped me cold. )

ALSO, I noticed a lot of the most popular negative reviews were from people slamming this book for needless literary wankery, for its forced allusions, etc. I agree it's annoying when author's do that, but I think that within the context of her life story, it was all pretty organic, since art and letters are basically the only thing that kept the quietly miserable Bechdel family together:

-Just about every time Alison connects with her father, it's through classic literature (Think of that queer Trojan horse book swap of Colette and Millet) .
-Most of Alison's interactions with her mom are literary as well: transcribing diary entries, rehearsing lines for a play, or reading stories in the tub.
-The family all write exquisite letters to one another throughout the story.
-Her parents met while performing a play by Shakespeare, and the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald was an integral part of their courtship.
-Her father was a High School English teacher.

If anything, it would have been strange for Bechdel to skimp on the allusions. Anyway, this was a borderline 5-star read for me.