The Secret to Superhuman Strength

Alison Bechdel has always been there for her fans. Growing up queer in the 1980s? Not so fun, unless it is in a cartoon. Her "Dykes To Watch Out For" have given resilience to communities all over the rainbow world and Secret to Superhuman Strength is what we need for an outlook to successful - or maybe not so successful - ageing. Getting old has so far seldomly been discussed for queer people, there are few role models and even fewer prescriptions. This is a good one! The drawings are beautiful as always. This is my favorite of Bechdel's memoirs.

I loved Bechdel’s amazing graphic memoir Fun Home, so I had high expectations for this book about her lifetime love affair with exercise and, eventually, yoga—and she doesn’t disappoint.

The captions to some 200 pages of her fantastic cartoon drawings are honest to a fault, covering repressed emotions, relationship difficulties, and the fear she doesn’t deserve the good things in life.

In more recent years (time-bound events like Trump’s ride down the escalator appear in background scenes), Bechdel strives to forge coherent meaning from her life history and her infatuation with Jack Kerouac and other deceased spiritual authors.