Turn away now if you are expecting a treatise on 'paths' and 'destiny'. Ten years ago, Claire Dederer put her back out trying to breastfeed her rapidly growing baby daughter. Reluctantly following the advice of everyone in her smug Seattle neighbourhood, she joined her first yoga class and embarked on an eye-opening adventure. Over the next decade, Dederer tackled Triangle, Lotus, Downward Dog and the dreaded Crow, becoming firm friends with some poses and developing long-standing feuds with others. At the same time she explored the forces that shaped her generation: They were the unsettled children of women's lib, whose mothers ran away to find themselves, shacked up with much younger men and lived the transcendental dream - so when they grew up they were determined to be good, good, good. But now, halfway into Half Moon pose with another baby on the way and her marriage feeling the strain, Dederer found herself asking: do we need to be so good? And why did she have to learn to do a perfect Handstand anyway? Part memoir, part cultural investigation, part enthusiast's guide to a modern obsession, Poser is a refreshing, funny and uplifting book for anyone who has ever tried to stand on their head - while keeping both feet on the ground.
