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meadowbat's review against another edition
4.0
Meandering, layered, and full of small delights, this is the memoir of a searcher. Since adolescence, Bechdel has sought to improve both her body and mind. Her pursuits are as eclectic as her literary references, ranging from cross-country skiing to karate, transcendentalism to Buddhism, the L.L. Bean catalog to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (back when it was just RF, not TERF per se). Spoiler: There is no secret to super-human strength. As her obsession with Eastern religion suggests, strength comes from sublimating the self, surrendering to the chaos of the universe, and in doing so, finding oneness with it. Easier said than done, but this book did make me want to take up some form of exercise again.
eldritchreads's review against another edition
3.75
An enjoyable memoir that blends physical health, mental health, spirituality, and the need for community.
krismcd59's review against another edition
5.0
I can't imagine being more different from another human than I am from Alison Bechdel (the only things we have in common are our ages, genders, and love of reading); however, her narrative of her quest to understand herself, decade by decade, gave me a whole new way of looking at my own life from the vantage of my early 60s. If literary genius means uniting the personal and the universal, then this moving, funny, heartbreaking book certainly qualifies. Every Boomer should read it immediately.
konbak's review against another edition
A heavier read philosophically than I expected, and I’m not in the mood for that sort of thing at the moment.
roanfrancis's review against another edition
4.0
I appreciate Alison Bechdel’s total genius, and her very intense focus on examining her own mind and life and pathos. This was a very cerebral memoir with an exercise/outdoors theme that was really about a search for meaning. I liked all of it except the tangents about Transcendentalists that I really didn’t care about.
slugluv's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars—the premise was really not that appealing to me, I just read this because I typically love anything Bechdel makes. There were moments where I was captivated and found it beautiful or funny, but overall I found it disappointing. The art is really well done, and Bechdel’s wife Holly did a great job of the coloring. I found the disparate references to transcendental writers from the past less cohesive and engaging than when she usually does that kind of thing. Still, it was interesting to see a memoir that included more of her recent adult life than I’ve seen before.
yarrowkat's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliant as ever. I started this thinking it was going to be a trivial, perhaps somewhat silly reminisce through Bechdel's participation in various fitness fads, as that's what reviews seemed to say. I'm delighted to report that the fitness angle is merely a frame through which Bechdel directs her incisive, exploratory gaze towards what it means to be human, via a thoughtful exploration of the parallels between the Romantics, the Transcendentalists, the Beat poets, and the present day. The interwoven layers of story and meditation on the meaning of life loop back and forth through the epistemology of the body itself.