Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama

In 2002, Alison dreams of her college dorm room. There is evidence of a dead body previously in the room. She tries contacting campus police, but the extension for campus police, “18”, doesn’t work. Alison tells Amy about the dream and she believes the dead body is Alison’s father. In therapy, Alison talks to Carol about her financial and creative stress.

Alison fights with her mother over Norah Vincent, a libertarian lesbian columnist who criticizes abortion and LGBTQ activism. Alison’s parents are largely apolitical, but Helen has protested Roe v. Wade. Helen provides Bruce’s letters from his Army years for use in Fun Home. Some are surprisingly romantic, but others seem unusually self-abrasive. Helen mentions his disapproval of her pregnancy, and Alison considers whether Bruce is talking around an abortion request. The box also includes four of Helen’s poems, including include two timid sonnets.

Alison recounts her mother’s emotional unavailability at night, referring to her state as a “plexiglass dome” (129). Alison shares this need for isolation. As a child, she creates secluded offices for herself and draws enclosed habitats like a bug’s mound. She compares this to Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book, which depicts a womb-shaped building where a character works without intrusion.