3: The Imposter's Daughter: A True Memoir, by Laurie Sandell (2009 hardcover)

In the graphic novel Fun Home (2006), Alison Bechdel told her story of growing up with a father who hid his secret life under a blanket of normalcy: his jobs as English teacher and funeral home director and hobby as a home conservationist covering his other life as a homosexual with a penchant for young boys. In this book, Sandell tells the opposite story--one in which a very average man covers his mediocrity by creating a fictitious persona who stars in intellectual and political power roles. As a child, Sandell reveled in her father's stories, ignoring the telltale signs of falsehoods and avoiding confrontations that would uncover the truth.

As she enters adulthood, Sandell begins to question her own flamboyant behavior--the effects of which lead to bad relationships, insomnia, and drug rehab--and recognizes that she has to come to terms with who her father really is in order to be at peace with herself.  Ultimately, she uses her skills as a journalist to unravel her father's lies, which throws her family into disarray.

The novel is both written and illustrated by Sandell, and is told with a wry sense of humor and openness that engages the reader. Not a huge fan of other people's I-have-a-rotten-father stories, I nonetheless found the memoir engaging and insightful.