The Secret To Superhuman Strength

I love it when essayists are able to weave together seemingly disparate strands of thoughts in way that makes you wonder why you didn't make the connection yourself. Sometimes it's because you're being introduced to knowledge new to you, sometimes it's because you can't see the nose in front of your face, and sometimes it's because they don't fit together at all, like a musical mashup that doesn't truly work but sounds interesting on its own. The Secret to Superhuman Strength is kind of like that.

Though I'm about a decade younger than Bechdel, my age cohort is close enough that I found much of it relatable. Girls of my time had few outlets for athletic prowess other than the playground or gym class, and that was true for everything. show more Band? Clarinet or flute. Home Ec yes, shop class no. Driver's ed yes, but only automatic, not manual.

As someone who revels in fitness endeavors but is never as fit as I’d like to be, I enjoyed Bechdel’s observations about how the drive for physical transcendence is really a desire for more other worldly experience, a different kind of transcendence. Each fitness fad arrives in its in own zeitgeist, a reflection of the times in which it is born, embraced, and fades away. This also mimics the life experience: peaks eventually become valleys and subsequent peaks may not be as high.

So too the book: Bechdel’s memoir eventually reaches 2020, a year that for many is still hard to reconcile. Also at this point, she has lived well over half a century. She admits to not knowing how to wrap up the endeavor that is this book, but has also shown us that knowing your limits is a strength all its own. 3.5 stars show less

A rambling but mostly engaging memoir of Bechdel's lifelong fetish for exercise equipment and a slow coming to terms with her mortality. She goes decade by decade from the 1960s (her teens) through the 2010s (her fifties), touching on what athletic fad du jour had caught her attention and what was happening with her family and in her inner life. Intertwined is an outline of her developing philosophy by way of biographical sketches from the lives of a small group of 18th century Romantics, 19th century Transcendentalists, 20th century Beats, and references to Buddhism and some other Eastern traditions.

It's a nostalgic trip for someone like me who is about the same age and read the same Charles Atlas comic strip advertisements in the show more same comic books and watched the same exercise crazes become popular and fade away. For fans of Fun Home there are plenty of references to the events of that book. She also dishes a bit on her various romantic relationships.

Things get a little meta and dull in the final chapter as Bechdel wallows about, talking about how production of this book is dragging out and how she is flailing around for an ending, but it is still an enjoyable browse. show less

Alison Bechdel has always been fascinated with various forms of exercise and fitness. She recounts her journey from a child learning to ski, through phases of running, cycling, yoga, and more. Throughout, however, she's also trying to come to terms with her place in the world and her own mortality, since her body can't always do what she asks of it.

Interspersed in her personal account, Alison includes Buddhist teaching and Transcendalists, Jack Kerouac, Margaret Fuller, and more. It's about exercise, yes, but it's really about finding herself, using exercise to deal with difficult things and anxiety, but also how nature was an integral part of her well-being. A thoughtful graphic novel memoir I'd recommend widely.

Although I generally hate to assign any work a five-star rating, in this case I can't think of a single thing that could be improved upon. She is telling her own story (after telling her father's and mother's in her two earlier books). It feels honest and, if not complete, at least narratively cohesive. I have to wonder how she remembers such details; so much of my own life is a blank. High school? what was that?

Alison Bechdel's The Secret to Superhuman Strength may have started out as a lighthearted look at exercise fads throughout the cartoonist's lifetime, but it evolved into much more than that. In this work of graphic nonfiction, Bechdel deals with not only her various exercise obsessions, but also her conflicted relationships, alcohol and other substance abuse issues, and her insecurities related to her creative process. She manages to work in digressions about Margaret Fuller, Samuel Coleridge, and Jack Kerouac as well. On top of all this, there's also healthy dose of Buddhist-inspired teaching, as well as political commentary and plugs for LL Bean and Patagonia outdoor gear. Despite all these disparate elements, the book works, in large show more measure due to the expressiveness of Bechdel's illustrations. Recommended. show less

Alison Bechdel and I were born within about three weeks of one another. I have been a fan for so many years -- when I came out in the mid 1980s her comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For" was a significant cultural mirror. I knew those characters. I knew those internal battles. I certainly knew those cultural referents. The Secret to Superhuman Strength may resonate for me especially because our lives have been so parallel. Don't get me wrong: our lives have been different in SO many ways! But her 20s were my 20s; her 40s were my 40s. This graphic memoir is sold as an exploration of the role of exercise in her life but it is so much more than that. It is a memoir about the search for inner peace, the desire for both autonomy and intimacy, show more and how, for her, exercise has been a central element of coming to terms with these fraught human strivings. I've also been a runner for my entire adult life (until last August's knee replacement) and Bechdel's descriptions of the numbing and exhilarating effects of vigorous cardio exercise spoke to me in a visceral and sweet way.

Her drawings are, as always, a joy. I love her inclusion of background images that center each story firmly in its place and time (picture George W. Bush on the television in the background while she and her girlfriend are arguing over whether Alison should take a vacation). I also love her inclusion of her pets over the years; there is almost always a cat -- and occasionally a dog -- in her drawings of home.

I also appreciate that Bechdel does her research. She is an intellectual and a historian. The detours about Wordsworth, Emerson, Coleridge, Margaret Fuller, and Kerouac were delightful if a bit hard sometimes to keep straight (no pun intended). Her notice of themes in their lives and how they are mirrored in her own were a compelling element in the universality of her introspection.

My sister had this book sitting on the bedside table when I arrived for my first visit in 21 months (damn pandemic). It's not quite as good as the five-star *Fun Home* but it's a wonderful read. I'll probably purchase a copy to place on my shelves next to *Fun Home*, *Are You My Mother?*, and *The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For*. show less

As with Bechdel's previous memoirs, this gently paced narrative interweaves the personal with wider literary and historical references that resonate with the theme of the book. I'm only familiar with some of the references, but enough context is provided for that not to matter (although the context is not always provided with the first reference, so rereading is probably going to provide me with a better feel)

I love that Bechdel told their story of seeking for enlightenment through their serial loves for exercise regimes and sports, along with the whys and wherefores of starting and stopping each one (and that they acknowledge that there are several such that didn't make it in to the book)

In terms of difficult to read sections -- show more Bechdel has not shied away from discussing their maladaptive uses of alcohol, nor the trouble that being a workaholic has brought. There are also mentions of the deaths of Bechdel's parents -- one by suicide and the other to cancer. show less