Issue 4: The Secret to Superhuman Strength + Whole Wheat Banana Bread

A graphic memoir about movement and a hearty, sustaining banana bread

Feb 18, 2022

Welcome to Good Book/Good Bread! Every two weeks, I recommend a book I love, and bake a delicious bread that fits with an aspect of the story. This week: The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel and whole-wheat banana bread. Haven’t subscribed yet? Sign up here!

Part 1: Good Book

In a nutshell

The Secret to Superhuman Strength is a gorgeous graphic novel by Alison Bechdel chronicling her relationship with sports and excercise over six decades. With ultra-detailed and colourful illustrations, Bechdel takes the reader through her interests in skiing, hiking, strength training, running, biking and yoga. This is set against the backdrop of her career, relationships and mental health, and intertwined with an exploration of literary figures and Eastern philosophers. If you’re not familiar with Alison Bechdel, she is a cartoonist known for graphic memoirs, as well as a MacArthur Fellow and cartoonist laureate of Vermont.

Three things I loved about The Secret to Superhuman Strength

1. The large illustrations

I’d often stop reading for a moment and just think about how many days it may have taken Bechdel to complete the single, vivid page I was on. Many pages are in the standard comic book grid style, but some are large illustrations that cover an entire page, or stretch over two. For example, one page shows the entire scope of the Michigan Womyn’s Musical festival, a Where’s Waldo-esque scene featuring a hundred super detailed revelers engaged in dozens of different activities. In another, Bechdel painstakingly maps out her entire childhood town in the context of her favourite running routes.

2. The realistic portrayal of outdoor activities

My favourite thing about this book is that it shows the rollercoaster of emotions you experience when exercising and doing sports. Both social media and the countless Arc’teryx-clad amateur athletes my town is full of seem to have convinced me everyone else is kicking butt all the time in their activities. This book was a good reminder everyone experiences ups and downs, both in sports and life in general. Bechdel face plants into mud on a trail run in Vermont, is confounded by the overwhelming logistics of her first bike touring trip, and confronts the impatient reality of long term, nagging injuries. As someone who had my worst fall in recent memory this winter while standing completely still on cross-country skis, I felt seen.

3. It examines how movement serves us at different periods in life

I really appreciated how this book looks at movement over a long time frame, and how different activities served Bechdel based on where she was in her life. Bechdel is perpetually open-minded to trying to something new, and despite not always being a natural, she is able to reflect on what it brings to her life, from a feeling of autonomy with running or self reliance with martial arts. Reading about Bechdel’s constant search for what will fulfill her based on her current needs made me think about what kind of movement actually feeds my soul, right now.

If you liked The Secret to Superhuman Strength, read this:

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Palimpsest: Documents from a Korean Adoption by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom
Hey Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Notable passage:

“On the fourth of July, I did three loops, plus another short stint to make it ten miles. Each time, as I passed my unwitting family going about their routines, they seemed stuck in time, while I was more unbound by it. Transcend: to pass beyond the limits of. I certainly ran farther that day than I thought I could. But I went beyond more than that physical limit. The boundary of my very self seemed to dissolve as I merged with the humid evening air.”

Part 2: Good Bread

Whole-wheat banana bread with hemp hearts and walnuts

Why this bread for this book?

The Secret to Superhuman Strength is in part about finding meaning in exercise and sports over a lifetime. In this vein, I wanted to bake a sustaining, hearty bread that would keep me going on longer outdoor adventures. This banana bread is on the healthier side, made with 100% whole wheat flour, is quite dense, and slices easily.

I tucked a piece into my running backpack and ate it in the middle of a very slow trail run on a sunny day on the BC coast, thinking about Alison Bechdel experiencing runner’s high for the first time as a teenager, an “altered state more mystical than chemical.”

Recipe and modifications:

I used the healthy banana bread recipe from Cookie and Kate, which you can view here. I wanted some additional crunch, so I added a half-cup of chopped walnuts, as well as three heaping tablespoons of hemp hearts. I also melted and then swirled a half cup of peanut butter on the loaf once in the pan, just before baking.

Works well:

With jam
Crumbled into Greek yogurt
Sliced, frozen, and then popped into the toaster on a busy morning