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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
4,5/5 - absolutely brilliant collection of stories. All different in style, topics, characters and atmosphere. Some more light, some - more complicated.
My favorite are “The Dummy” and “Baby”, kept me on the edge of my seat
My favorite are “The Dummy” and “Baby”, kept me on the edge of my seat
Meh. Had to DNF 2 stories and overall the pace was quite slow.
favourites: pilgrimage, baby and the way we live now
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Anything after Proust is going to be a disappointment but thought these were absolute garbage when I read the first few. I persevered because it’s Susan Sontag and there were some interesting common threads and insights linking them together. The last couple are really good. I loved the ‘Baby’ story.
slow-paced
This was at parts brilliant, at parts a bit underdeveloped and confusing. Sontag is known for her essay writing but once I saw that she has written short stories too, I needed to pick this up. All the stories are so different from each other. Some of them feel more like experiments instead of finished short stories, and some are some of the best short stories I have read in a very long time. So yes, a mixed bag and very difficult to rate. I haven't picked up any nonfiction by her so I am keeping my fingers crossed that her essays will be as brilliant as some of the stories in this.
I'm still not sure how to rate this book, they are short stories after all and I can tell you the ones I loved and the ones that I'm not sure I understand. yet these stories are somewhat cohesive with each other in a way that is hard to explain without being too simplistic or too complicated. And I guess that's why I love and enjoy her writing and can only rate it with 5/5.
(Rated down from 3.5/5)
This collection consists of all Sontag's short stories, many of which are semi-autobiographical (as editor Benjamin Taylor writes in his foreword, Sontag saw short stories as a way to dive into the personal).
Sontag is obviously a formidable writer, but not all these stories showcase her brilliance. There's a strong sense that she's using them to convey her own thoughts and feelings, and occasionally, these supposedly "underlying" ideas overwhelmed the narrative instead. Such less successful stories came across a bit fable-y, and while I didn't particularly hate being "preached" at, the transparency of it all did make me feel less engaged - I couldn't see the plot/characters as anything but channels through which Sontag voiced her opinions. In fact, some of them felt more like personal essays more than anything else.
For me, the more compelling stories were those which carried ideas that I personally identified with. Like 'Pilgrimage', which is about the fear of meeting your idols. Or 'The Dummy', which discusses the unbearable ennui everyday life can bring. And I can't post this review without talking about 'A Letter Scene', which I found to be an extremely moving examination of the written word as a vessel for human emotion, and how written communication can carry unique weight/significance.
All in all, this collection showed a different side of Sontag, which, while not completely mind blowing, was still really intriguing nonetheless.
This collection consists of all Sontag's short stories, many of which are semi-autobiographical (as editor Benjamin Taylor writes in his foreword, Sontag saw short stories as a way to dive into the personal).
Sontag is obviously a formidable writer, but not all these stories showcase her brilliance. There's a strong sense that she's using them to convey her own thoughts and feelings, and occasionally, these supposedly "underlying" ideas overwhelmed the narrative instead. Such less successful stories came across a bit fable-y, and while I didn't particularly hate being "preached" at, the transparency of it all did make me feel less engaged - I couldn't see the plot/characters as anything but channels through which Sontag voiced her opinions. In fact, some of them felt more like personal essays more than anything else.
For me, the more compelling stories were those which carried ideas that I personally identified with. Like 'Pilgrimage', which is about the fear of meeting your idols. Or 'The Dummy', which discusses the unbearable ennui everyday life can bring. And I can't post this review without talking about 'A Letter Scene', which I found to be an extremely moving examination of the written word as a vessel for human emotion, and how written communication can carry unique weight/significance.
All in all, this collection showed a different side of Sontag, which, while not completely mind blowing, was still really intriguing nonetheless.