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The Secret To Superhuman Strength Hardcover – May 4, 2021
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The Best Graphic Book of 2021 by Publishers Weekly | A New York Times Best Graphic Novel of 2021 | A New York Times Notable Book | An Autostraddle Best Queer Book of the Year | A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year | A St. Louis Post Dispatch Best Book of the Year | NPR, 12 Books NPR Staffers Loved | Shelf Awareness Best Books of 2021
From the author of Fun Home, a profoundly affecting graphic memoir of Bechdel's lifelong love affair with exercise, set against a hilarious chronicle of fitness fads in our times
Comics and cultural superstar Alison Bechdel delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adulthood, with every fitness craze to come down the pike: from Jack LaLanne in the 60s ("Outlandish jumpsuit! Cantaloupe-sized guns!") to the existential oddness of present-day spin class. Readers will see their athletic or semi-active pasts flash before their eyes through an ever-evolving panoply of running shoes, bicycles, skis, and sundry other gear. But the more Bechdel tries to improve herself, the more her self appears to be the thing in her way. She turns for enlightenment to Eastern philosophers and literary figures, including Beat writer Jack Kerouac, whose search for self-transcendence in the great outdoors appears in moving conversation with the author’s own. This gifted artist and not-getting-any-younger exerciser comes to a soulful conclusion. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others.
A heartrendingly comic chronicle for our times.
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMariner Books
- Publication dateMay 4, 2021
- Dimensions7.5 x 0.93 x 10 inches
- ISBN-100544387651
- ISBN-13978-0544387652
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Color? It’s the first sign that something new is afoot in a book full of familiar flourishes [including] the figure of Bechdel herself, drawn as a bit of a cross between Tintin and Waldo, vibrating with anxiety, doing her best to flee herself on bike or skis or simply afoot….It’s [an] accumulating ease we feel in this book—a supple, loose-limbed grace; an absence of fear that translates into simplicity, discipline and modesty.” — New York Times
“Astonishing . . . utterly absorbing” — The Atlantic
“[Bechdel] set out to write a light book about her lifelong commitment to exercise, including stints as a cyclist, climber, skier and yogi. As usual, her story and art are about so much more—the realities of aging, the quest for transcendence and the drumbeat of mortality.” — Washington Post
“[Bechdel’s] work is known for its unique style of combining incisive insight, humor, emotional resonance, queer ethos, and visually stunning illustration. She brings all of that to her new graphic memoir, The Secret to Superhuman Strength.” — Shondaland
About the Author
ALISON BECHDEL’s cult following for her early comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For expanded wildly for her family memoirs, the New York Times bestselling and Time magazine #1 Book of the Year graphic memoir Fun Home, adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical, and Are You My Mother? Bechdel has been named a MacArthur Fellow and Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, among many other honors. The Secret to Superman Strength is her third graphic memoir.
Product details
- Publisher : Mariner Books (May 4, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0544387651
- ISBN-13 : 978-0544387652
- Item Weight : 1.95 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.5 x 0.93 x 10 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #103,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #79 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels
- #120 in Literary Graphic Novels (Books)
- #3,394 in Memoirs (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
ALISON BECHDEL has been a careful archivist of her own life and kept a journal since she was ten. Since 1983 she has been chronicling the lives of various characters in the fictionalized “Dykes to Watch Out For” strip, “one of the preeminent oeuvres in the comics genre, period” (Ms.). The strip is syndicated in 50 alternative newspapers, translated into multiple languages, and collected into a book series with a quarter of a million copies in print. Utne magazine has listed DTWOF as “one of the greatest hits of the twentieth century.”
Customer reviews
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Top reviews from the United States
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Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ms. Bechdel! This is so very funny and relevant!
I think if someone liked Doonesbury or Peanuts(not to mention any number of other great comics) they might like this!
In ‘Fun Home’ and ‘Are You My Mother?’ I loved and admired the psychology references. In ‘The Secret’ loved both the coverage of exercise trends and Bechdel’s treatment of Buddhism as well as the Transcendentalist poets and writers. One favorite: “How to get six pack abs in only 60 years.” Haha! Also love all the cats.
In addition, the graphic novel captures specific locales with its artwork, such as rural Pennsylvania, the Vermont countryside, or the redwoods of California. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the connections between physical fitness and spirituality.
But it was charmingly honest and open. Personally I found it both healing and touching.
I loved the drawing and details. I think many people will see parts of themselves mirrored. Highly recommended if you are open hearted
Top reviews from other countries
Sin embargo las personas que envían el producto, envían con detalles estéticos que hacen que la experiencia de compra no sea gratificante.
Reviewed in Mexico on December 9, 2021
Sin embargo las personas que envían el producto, envían con detalles estéticos que hacen que la experiencia de compra no sea gratificante.