The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
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Web ID: 12622409I recommend this to everyone!
Much more than a book about exercise! Bechdel's new book is a beautifully written autobiography of her search for physical strength, fulfilling relationships, philosophical enlightenment and the time and energy to create her absolutely ingenious comic strips and graphic novels. My only regret about this book is that I borrowed it from the library only to find I needed to own a copy, because there's so much I'd like to think about and rediscover.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Funny Self Reflective Graphic Memoir
I enjoyed reading this graphic memoir. The author chronicles her relationship with fitness and reflects on what is really important. There are some serious subjects tackled but it is also very funny. The text and artwork are wonderful. Enjoy
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sparkles
I've been a fan of Bechdel since the late 80s. I love that she has "aged" herself realistically over the years, and shown she's had ups and downs. It's realistically well written/drawn and the coloring in fascinating Highly Recommended 5/5
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Another gem from Bechdel
Despite the title, Bechdel does NOT reveal the secret to superhuman strength. She does, however, describe how her lifelong obsession with physical fitness (both the trendy and the mundane) connects to a broad range of other elements in her life—her relationship with her parents, her relationships with her partners, her generalized anxiety, her never-ending search for self-knowledge (including detailed discussions of Transcendentalism, William Wordsworth, Margaret Fuller, Samuel T. Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Jack Kerouac), and her affinity for the outdoors. If you’re still dismissive of graphic narratives as mere “comic books,” read this and see if Bechdel doesn’t challenge your preconceptions.
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Excellent!
I read :Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic a while ago and was astonished by how moved I was by it. It seems like I do repeat my mistakes as I wasn't expecting to be moved by The Secret to Superhuman Strength. How could a graphic memoir about exercise move me? It did though, multiple times and, actually, when I think about it, it happened throughout the book. In the beginning, I was a bit confused: I don't read many graphic memoirs - or novels - and I tend to forget how dense they are compared with "slice of life" comic books. They are not quick reads and not meant to be that either. This memoir begins with an introduction in which Alison Bechdel writes about exercising and how it has permeated life today. Then, she asks herself questions: why did it go this way, how. She'll answer using her personal experiences going from her birth in 1960 to 2020 and she'll answer one particular question that has plagued her for a while: what is the secret to superhuman strength? The reader gets to see the author as a child, as a teenager, as an adult and her relationship with exercising evolving. It felt honest, authentic; Alison Bechdel doesn't shy away from talking about heavy topics, such as alcohol or drugs. The reader gets to see her working process - frightening, really, I felt ill only reading these parts - and her dealing with the loss of her parents - or any loss, as she writes about losing her cats and breaking-up with girlfriends. She also writes about identity and finding one's place - I particularly loved her discovery of the Women's Music Festival! It felt strange to me to identify with her on some points, mostly during the childhood part. The author explains that she wanted to grow muscles, to be strong and she "resented" the difference made between boys and girls, be it about clothes or about activities. As a child, I hated being considered less sportive or less able because I was a girl! So it was easy to understand her and to feel close to her reflections about the reason why, growing up, she still wanted to be strong. I loved that she talks about the different sports that she practised, the different benefits it gave her, but also the fact that exercising was a way, for her, to not feel. She felt her body, her muscles, she was sometimes drained of her energy; she didn't focus on feelings, on what she felt about different events in her life, from her father's death to her wondering where she belonged in the world. It felt like transfer. I loved that exercising was also a mental quest; I loved to read about her discovery of yoga, a practise I discovered during the first lockdown; I loved that she referenced multiple books and linked her study of her own exercising with the lives of different literary/historical figures such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, but also Dorothy Wordsworth and Margaret Fuller; I loved that I left this book moved, warm, feeling good - I even laughed at the end, with the last sentence. So, it was a really good surprise; I didn't expect to love this book as much as I did! Both personal and trying to touch the grander scheme of things, it felt true, genuine: the best kind of books!
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