Spent: A Comic Novel

by Alison Bechdel Narrated by Not Yet Available

Overview

The celebrated and beloved New York Times bestselling author of the modern classic Fun Home presents a laugh-out-loud, brilliant, and passionately political work of autofiction.

In Alison Bechdel's hilariously skewering and gloriously cast new comic novel confection, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel, running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont, is existentially irked by a climate-challenged world and a citizenry on the brink of civil war. She wonders: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege?

Meanwhile, Alison's first graphic memoir about growing up with her father, a taxidermist who specialized in replicas of Victorian animal displays, has been adapted into a highly successful TV series. It's a phenomenon that makes Alison, formerly on the cultural margins, the envy of her friend group (recognizable as characters, now middle-aged and living communally in Vermont, from Bechdel's beloved comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For).

As the TV show Death and Taxidermy racks up Emmy after Emmy-and when Alison's Pauline Bunyanesque partner Holly posts an instructional wood-chopping video that goes viral-Alison's own envy spirals. Why couldn't she be the writer for a critically lauded and wildly popular reality TV show...like Queer Eye...showing people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!!

Spent's rollicking and masterful denouement-making the case for seizing what's true about life in the world at this moment, before it's too late-once again proves that “nobody does it better” (New York Times Book Review) than the real Alison Bechdel.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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 on The Secret to Superhuman Strength

“Astonishing . . . utterly absorbing”  — The Atlantic on The Secret to Superhuman Strength

“[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 on The Secret to Superhuman Strength

“[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

“Graphic storytelling at its most profound.”  — Los Angeles Times, Favorite Book of the Year, on Fun Home

Product Details

BN ID:	2940190902242
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged