All the Powerful Invisible Things: A Sportswoman's Notebook

by Gretchen Legler

A collection of essays detailing the author's experiences with hunting, fishing, killing, nature, her family, her friends, and her husband

Genres: Nature, Memoir

193 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 1995

About the author

Gretchen Legler is currently an Master’s of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, focusing on the intersections of spirituality and ecology. She is on leave from her position as a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Maine at Farmington, where she specializes in memoir writing, the personal essay, and nonfiction essays about the natural world. She has taught in the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage and in the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University, and often offers community workshops on writing and the environment.

Previous to her stint at Divinity School, she and her partner, singer-songwirter Ruth Hill, owned a small farm in Western Maine, raising goats and chickens and their year’s supply of food. When not in Cambridge, MA, Gretchen lives in a one-room rustic cabin on a pond in the woods. In her community of Farmington, ME, Gretchen has been on the board of SAPARS, a volunteer chaplain at Franklin Memorial Hospital, and is the co-founder of the Left Bank of the Sandy River Gay & Lesbian Literature and Cultural Salon.

Reviews

[Gale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a wonderful quick read chronicling what it’s like to be a woman in the outdoors, what it’s like to move quickly and harshly into the queer world, what it’s like to lose a sibling to suicide. Wild ride

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We stood quietly, reaching out for sound. We heard water. We heard, I swear, dirt being
pushed skyward by plants coming up from the earth. We heard the first important sounds
of spring". (p. 131)

This is a beautiful book, a great book!! If I could rate it hiher than '5' I would (and I am a
critical reader who does not rate books as '5's' indiscriminately). To say that this book is
a journal about being/finding peace with oneself through a spiritual ecology is like saying
that 'Crime and Punishment' is a mystery.

Legler explores the inner and outer crevasses of the soul, the verdant spaces between
things. As she deals with her sexuality and coming out as a lesbian, she explores connec-
tions and touchstones - family, friends, lovers. This book is a wonder of lyricism and in-
trospection.

"We know our minds...by listening to our bodies first. We know our minds by paying atten-
tion to the way our blood courses, the way our shoulders bunch and gnaw, the way our
stomachs knot, the way our finger joints ring with pain. We know fear and trust and ten-
derness and shame, all of them, in our bodies, first. When we don't pay attention to our
bodies, we can't know our minds, she said. And when we don't know our own minds, we
accidentally, all the time, hurt people we love, including ourselves". (p. 145)

I could quote so much more, but if the above two selections move you at all, this is a book
that is a must-read. It is filled with beauty, wisdom and poetic truths.

[Maryann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that mentions Audre Lorde as reference, who brings the erotic from dark into the light is a book I like. This book was a rich, dense experience of the outdoor life, the magic, the invitation of the unsanitary, unclean into our lives to make beautiful music. What she said about the chicken cutlets in the store wraps up her world vs ours. Legler enjoys food, enjoys life, eats well, and had deep darkness. I appreciated her struggles in all levels. The book started off somewhat slow, but picked up in the middle nicely. Yet, at the end I felt lost with the focus on her relationship or the few nights at the campground. I was like where did this come from? Or maybe thats it - no nice neat resolution. What her dead sister said about never coming back here, and feeling sorry for her for being in this world without nobody that Her person - was important. She is best in her introspective narrative about the world around her.

[Laura Julier · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, this is beautiful, lyrical prose. A truly moving read. The way she moves between and threads lines of thought about coming out, sexuality, and gender identity through a storyline about being in the wild and hunting is impressive. I read this book 1st when it first came out, but I am reading it now almost 20 years later—I am such a different reader now. I’m so curious about the fact that the voice in this book is very different from the voice in her most recent book

[GeekChick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book, about "a woman's journey to self discovery." I know that makes it sound cheesy, but really, that's what it is. But it's awesome. I loved it. I'd pick up any of Legler's works, sight unseen, just because this one was so good.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know Gretchen personally. This helped me know her better. People's life journeys are interesting, particularly where they intersect with our own journeys. Lessons learned can be revisited and realigned.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir weaving a woman's spiritual journey and the outdoors. Great to see the outdoors through a woman's eyes, which isn't always given a voice.

[Heather]

good stuff. I studied with her for a year in my mfa program.