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carriepond's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
In The Secret to Superhuman Strength, Alison Bechdel weaves together her ever-evolving but steadfast relationship with exercise, the lives and work of various Eastern philosophers and transcendentalist authors, and her own experiences and life when not in motion. Each of these threads was interesting in its own right, but I am not sure if they were always integrated in a way that felt completely natural or intuitive. I still really enjoyed this one overall, especially the intersection of Bechdel's exercise routine with the rest of her life--in every season, Bechdel evolves and so too does her exercise routines. Bechdel is the perfect age to have a comprehensive personal experience with the evolution of fitness and wellness culture in the United States, so that was neat to see play out as well. I loved her memoir Fun Home and I really liked this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Suicide and Violence
ebrooker0103's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide
readingbrb's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction and Death
starduststyx's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
This felt like a really beautiful visual essay meshed with personal experiences. I was shocked when it ended since it felt like there was still a bit more to come. Books can end abruptly just like life and after reading something so focused on loss and escaping death I too feel a little less scared about the inevitable.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism
adelinebal4's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, and Death of parent
kaimetcalfe's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicide, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Infidelity
tangleroot_eli's review against another edition
informative
sad
slow-paced
I've been following Alison Bechdel's work since the late '90s. This is by leaps and bounds (see what I did there?) my least favorite of her works that I've read.
I read it all because it's relatively short, and I kept wanting to find out what the point was going to be. But engagementwise I checked out on page 24, when Bechdel refers to the modern day as "these lax and decadent times." Which, OK, we have more sneaker choices than you did as a kid. But saying we live in "lax and decadent times" feels disingenuous at best and willfully obtuse at worst when legislatures and courts strip our civil rights pretty much daily and people have to crowdfund everything from housing and food to healthcare and funerals.
Near the end there's a Spaceballs-esque moment where Bechdel-the-character starts writing this book. She describes it as a "lighthearted" look at her relationship with exercise. Later she acknowledges that she's having trouble figuring out how to end the book because she's still not sure what it's about. At that moment I finally understood this book: it never knew what it was about, and so tried to be about everything, and therefore ended up not really being about anything. (Except maybe an ad for L.L. Bean and Patagonia.)
The parts about the Romantics, the Beatniks, Adrienne Rich, and Buddhism are... okay, I guess. I learned a thing or two. But I couldn't help noticing that these parts are most likely to appear whenever Bechdel comes really close to expressing and processing actual emotions. Maybe it's the hifalutin equivalent of a fade-to-black in a sex scene; we don't need to see someone's personal emotional catharsis, so we get poets instead. But it also feels like a dodge: just when it feels like Bechdel's really getting somewhere in dealing with her various issues, we suddenly get a page of Margaret Fuller's or Jack Kerouac's issues, instead.
I also felt dismay that Bechdel never acknowledges, or even seems to notice. that exercise is every bit as much an addiction for her as alcohol and prescription meds are. She starts exercising less; she starts drinking more. She stops drinking; she ramps up her exercise to what seem like unhealthy levels. But because our society says "drugs bad, exercise good!" Bechdel never has to face the fact that she's trading one ill-advised coping mechanism for another, despite repeated references to exertion-induced tachycardia and other health concerns indicating that exercise is not a universal good for her, at least not the way she's doing it.
In the end, Bechdel's own words from the beginning of the book sum up my feelings about it:
"You might well ask what use another book about fitness by a white lady could possibly be.
…"
I read it all because it's relatively short, and I kept wanting to find out what the point was going to be. But engagementwise I checked out on page 24, when Bechdel refers to the modern day as "these lax and decadent times." Which, OK, we have more sneaker choices than you did as a kid. But saying we live in "lax and decadent times" feels disingenuous at best and willfully obtuse at worst when legislatures and courts strip our civil rights pretty much daily and people have to crowdfund everything from housing and food to healthcare and funerals.
Near the end there's a Spaceballs-esque moment where Bechdel-the-character starts writing this book. She describes it as a "lighthearted" look at her relationship with exercise. Later she acknowledges that she's having trouble figuring out how to end the book because she's still not sure what it's about. At that moment I finally understood this book: it never knew what it was about, and so tried to be about everything, and therefore ended up not really being about anything. (Except maybe an ad for L.L. Bean and Patagonia.)
The parts about the Romantics, the Beatniks, Adrienne Rich, and Buddhism are... okay, I guess. I learned a thing or two. But I couldn't help noticing that these parts are most likely to appear whenever Bechdel comes really close to expressing and processing actual emotions. Maybe it's the hifalutin equivalent of a fade-to-black in a sex scene; we don't need to see someone's personal emotional catharsis, so we get poets instead. But it also feels like a dodge: just when it feels like Bechdel's really getting somewhere in dealing with her various issues, we suddenly get a page of Margaret Fuller's or Jack Kerouac's issues, instead.
I also felt dismay that Bechdel never acknowledges, or even seems to notice. that exercise is every bit as much an addiction for her as alcohol and prescription meds are. She starts exercising less; she starts drinking more. She stops drinking; she ramps up her exercise to what seem like unhealthy levels. But because our society says "drugs bad, exercise good!" Bechdel never has to face the fact that she's trading one ill-advised coping mechanism for another, despite repeated references to exertion-induced tachycardia and other health concerns indicating that exercise is not a universal good for her, at least not the way she's doing it.
In the end, Bechdel's own words from the beginning of the book sum up my feelings about it:
"You might well ask what use another book about fitness by a white lady could possibly be.
…"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Infidelity, Violence, Car accident, and Sexual harassment
CN exercise addictionnnia's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.75
Coming from a family of undertakers, 'The Secret to Superhuman Strength' is a journey through struggle to acceptance of one's own human nature and mortality. Most of the book covers struggle. Struggling to understand what she is struggling with and how to give it up. A lot of learning to unlearn. A lot of following Allison’s own interests, studying her heroes, their journeys, Allison’s journey, giving up the struggle against aches, pains, human frailty, real and imagined and finally just enjoying what life you have.
I don’t think I’m giving anything away here. Learning to unlearn what we have learned is a common practice in the colonial world.
Would have liked more time, space, and panels on the concluding desirable outcome and more enjoyment of life.
Happy for Allison and her loved ones.
I don’t think I’m giving anything away here. Learning to unlearn what we have learned is a common practice in the colonial world.
Would have liked more time, space, and panels on the concluding desirable outcome and more enjoyment of life.
Happy for Allison and her loved ones.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Minor: Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, and Alcohol
nmoriconi's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death and Cancer
clarabooksit's review against another edition
funny
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Grief
Moderate: Infidelity and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Suicide, and Sexual harassment