All the Powerful Invisible Things: A Sportswoman's Notebook

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. (Nov.)