All the Powerful Invisible Things: A Sportswoman's Notebook (Adventura Books) [Paperback]

Gretchen Legler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Adventura Books | Publication Date: October 31, 1995

This stunning first collection by a widely anthologized, Pushcart prize-winning writer provides a beautifully written chronicle of outdoor life. With eloquence and honesty, Legler's work documents a fascinating journey of self-discovery, graphically and intimately exploring the themes of hunting, sexuality, and landscape.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A beautifully-written chronicle of self-discovery and an eloquent chronicle of outdoor life. Gretchen Legler writes about the complexities of being a woman who fishes and hunts, as well as the more familiar and intimate terrain of family and sexuality.

From Publishers Weekly

These moving essays so seamlessly connect her inner and outer selves that Legler (a creative writing teacher whose work has been anthologized elsewhere) even manages to combine such seemingly at-odds subjects as her love of and respect for animals and her love of hunting, her affection for her ex-husband and her strong sexual attraction to women, without ever sounding hypocritical or confused. Nature plays a part here, but really these are essays about emotional states, and Legler bares her heart as easily as she slits open the belly of a deer. On a fishing trip in northern Minnesota, she recalls her troubled older sister's death at 22 from an overdose of antidepressants; on another trip, she works up the courage to tell her husband that she is leaving him and that she is attracted to women. Although consistently insightful, these essays occasionally ramble a little too far and wide. For example, an examination of gender-defined clothing and accessories struggles to contain references both to a catalogue of sensual devices and to Diana, goddess of the hunt; and the latter, like Legler's other classical references and quotes, seems forced. Still, these rare disjointed moments are clearly the result of the experimentation and openness that infuse this book with realism and wisdom.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 193 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (October 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878067699
• ISBN-13: 978-1878067692
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,261,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it, October 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: All the Powerful Invisible Things: A Sportswoman's Notebook (Adventura Books) (Paperback)

I'm not sure why I bought this book, because I don't consider myself a "sportswoman" and I can't imagine how or why anyone could kill an animal. But after the first chapter I was hooked. What a lovely book and touching stories. This is not a book about hunting, its about a woman's experiences with life. Very few books remain on my bookshelves as "keepers." This one will stay.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all time favorite books, January 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All the Powerful Invisible Things: A Sportswoman's Notebook (Adventura Books) (Paperback)

I love this book. It is deep, raw and completely captivating from the first page to the last. The subtitle "A Sportswoman's Notebook" is a bit misleading. Although the author does write about her relationship with the natural world she also addresses several other profound and provocative topics such as suicide and sexual orientation. I am not sporty but I am intense and introspective and this book speaks to me in unnumerable ways. (A special note to literary lesbians and their friends - read this book!)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great writing on a sometimes disturbing topic, December 6, 2006

By 

Bluffdweller (Twin Cities USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All the Powerful Invisible Things: A Sportswoman's Notebook (Adventura Books) (Paperback)

Memoiristic writing about a sterotypically "masculine" way of being in the natural world. The disturbing parts for me have to do with killing wild animals ( if they were cows I wouldn't care, probably) but even these passages attempt -- if somewhat anthropocentrically -- respect and humility.