Spent

The celebrated and beloved New York Times bestselling author of the modern classic Fun Home presents a laugh-out-loud, brilliant, and passionately political work of autofiction and social commentary.
In Alison Bechdel's hilariously skewering and gloriously cast new comic novel confection, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel, running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont, is existentially irked by a climate-challenged world and a citizenry on the brink of civil war. She wonders: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege?
Meanwhile, Alison's first graphic memoir about growing up with her father, a taxidermist who specialized in replicas of Victorian animal displays, has been adapted into a highly successful TV series. It's a phenomenon that makes Alison, formerly on the cultural margins, the envy of her friend group (recognizable as characters, now middle-aged and living communally in Vermont, from Bechdel's beloved LGBTQ+ comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For).
As the TV show Death and Taxidermy racks up Emmy after Emmy-and when Alison's Pauline Bunyanesque partner Holly posts an instructional wood-chopping video that goes viral-Alison's own envy spirals. Why couldn't she be the writer for a critically lauded and wildly popular reality TV show...like Queer Eye...showing people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!!
Spent's rollicking and masterful denouement-making the case for seizing what's true about life in the world at this moment, before it's too late-once again proves that "nobody does it better" (New York Times Book Review) than the real Alison Bechdel.
It's a story only Alison Bechdel could tell-one of creative envy, political anxiety, and pygmy goats.
• Autofiction: Follow a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel as she navigates professional envy and existential dread on her Vermont pygmy goat sanctuary.
• Humorous Fiction: A laugh-out-loud look at the absurdity of modern life, from viral wood-chopping videos to the surreal success of a TV show called Death and Taxidermy.
• Found Family: Reconnect with the beloved, now middle-aged, characters from Bechdel's iconic comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For.
• Political Commentary: A sharp, witty, and deeply felt critique of consumer capitalism, privilege, and the challenges of living an ethical life in a world on the brink.