crabbygirl reviewed Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
Review of 'Secret to Superhuman Strength' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
this tried to be a history/memoir of Bechdel's lifelong pursuit of physical fitness (thru karate, yoga, skiing, cycling, running, and more) as a means to achieve a 'zen' mind, a calm mind. it's a calmness she rarely achieves. she has difficulty maintaining a stable routine since creativity, her profession, is not confined to a 9 to 5 schedule. In trying to sleep at night, her practise of using a mental playback of repairing a flat tire no longer works. Pills and therapy provide small bursts of relief. meandering passages about the transcendentalists seem like filler - for both the book and her mind. as time goes on, she references sporadic injuries and ageing and often want to confront her impending death and yet the actual death of her father and decline and death of mother do not provide any epiphanies, or closures, or even pivot points.
in the end, I …
this tried to be a history/memoir of Bechdel's lifelong pursuit of physical fitness (thru karate, yoga, skiing, cycling, running, and more) as a means to achieve a 'zen' mind, a calm mind. it's a calmness she rarely achieves. she has difficulty maintaining a stable routine since creativity, her profession, is not confined to a 9 to 5 schedule. In trying to sleep at night, her practise of using a mental playback of repairing a flat tire no longer works. Pills and therapy provide small bursts of relief. meandering passages about the transcendentalists seem like filler - for both the book and her mind. as time goes on, she references sporadic injuries and ageing and often want to confront her impending death and yet the actual death of her father and decline and death of mother do not provide any epiphanies, or closures, or even pivot points.
in the end, I wonder if Bechdel is suffering a creative stagnation, having already plumbed her relationships with her parents (and unwilling to divulge such intimacies of her current or recent lovers) she seems left with only her self. a solitary pursuit can be interesting to the person doing the pursuit. but to uninvolved others, it's just boring.
