The Atlantic calls Alison Bechdel’s The Secret to Superhuman Strength “quietly astonishing,” and that it is. While the book purports to be about athleticism, Bechdel’s narrative unfolds and opens onto much bigger questions about the body’s relationship to its environment and other living beings, the ecology of the self. With musings on barbells, cycling, softball, and karate, to name just a few of the sports she explores, to thoughts on Jack Kerouac, Margaret Fuller, Samuel Coleridge, and Adrienne Rich, Bechdel never lets herself off the hook as she embraces the deeper truths in complexity. This book is about a lot, and yet the transitions between the micro and macro, the details and grand insights, are seamless. With gorgeous illustrations that serve as visual philosophical statements in themselves, The Secret to Superhuman Strength is a tour de force.
The Secret to Superhuman Strength, by Alison Bechdel. Published by Mariner Books. The editor is Deanne Urmy, and the agent is Sydelle Kramer. The Secret to Superhuman Strength is a finalist for the Publishing Triangle’s Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction; the winner will be announced on May 11.