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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
(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.
Esta colección de relatos me ha parecido muy desigual y me ha defraudado. Creo que hay otras escritorias norteamericanas que tienen mejores colecciones de relatios por ejemplo Lucia Berlin, Alice Munro, Joy Carol Oates (con ese punto de oscuridad tan característicos), Doris Lessing, Carson Mccullers,....
No sé lo más seguro que no sea el libro más adecuado para empezar con la autora porque no es que no esté mal escrito sino que no me ha terminado de convencer.
No sé lo más seguro que no sea el libro más adecuado para empezar con la autora porque no es que no esté mal escrito sino que no me ha terminado de convencer.
challenging
dark
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 stars
In an interview to Paris Review, Susan Sontag had said that “writer is someone who pays attention to the world.” Writing, she said, demands “a going inward and reclusiveness, just plain reclusiveness.” This seemed to me like a contradiction. How could one be a reclusive and, at the same time, pay attention to the world?
It took me a while – and a lot of reading, therefore reclusiveness – to understand that this, seemingly a contradiction, it was indeed a requisite not only to be aware and understand the world but also to be able to write about it, brilliantly and eloquently, as Susan Sontag did.
Sontag was one of the most interesting minds of the 20th century. Provocative, intelligent, with strong beliefs and a deep interest in everything, from literature and photography to philosophy and psychiatry. Her writing, she wrote in her diaries, come from reading; it is incisive, sophisticated, expressive and interesting. She was a great essayist.
This book’s eleven stories were first published in Partisan Review, American Review, The Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, and others, and they are assembled here in their entirety for the first time. The most appealing element of this collection is the variety of themes and styles. "Pilgrimage", is an autobiographical account of Sontag’s visit with a boyfriend to the home of Thomas Mann in California when she was a young girl. Others, such as "Project for a Trip to China", has the form of a memoir. I particularly liked "The Dummy", the theme of which is the search of happiness and how the small things bring joy in life. It is a humorous allegory about someone who is sick of living his boring everyday life and creates a dummy to replace him and do all the things he is tired of doing.
In "The Way We Live Now", Sontag recounts, very perceptively, the start of the aids epidemic in the gay community in New York City. Other stories, such as Debriefing is an experimental, challenging story with no boundaries.
After reading these short stories, I am eager to go back and explore once more Sontag’s serious, quiet and sophisticated world.
In an interview to Paris Review, Susan Sontag had said that “writer is someone who pays attention to the world.” Writing, she said, demands “a going inward and reclusiveness, just plain reclusiveness.” This seemed to me like a contradiction. How could one be a reclusive and, at the same time, pay attention to the world?
It took me a while – and a lot of reading, therefore reclusiveness – to understand that this, seemingly a contradiction, it was indeed a requisite not only to be aware and understand the world but also to be able to write about it, brilliantly and eloquently, as Susan Sontag did.
Sontag was one of the most interesting minds of the 20th century. Provocative, intelligent, with strong beliefs and a deep interest in everything, from literature and photography to philosophy and psychiatry. Her writing, she wrote in her diaries, come from reading; it is incisive, sophisticated, expressive and interesting. She was a great essayist.
This book’s eleven stories were first published in Partisan Review, American Review, The Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, and others, and they are assembled here in their entirety for the first time. The most appealing element of this collection is the variety of themes and styles. "Pilgrimage", is an autobiographical account of Sontag’s visit with a boyfriend to the home of Thomas Mann in California when she was a young girl. Others, such as "Project for a Trip to China", has the form of a memoir. I particularly liked "The Dummy", the theme of which is the search of happiness and how the small things bring joy in life. It is a humorous allegory about someone who is sick of living his boring everyday life and creates a dummy to replace him and do all the things he is tired of doing.
In "The Way We Live Now", Sontag recounts, very perceptively, the start of the aids epidemic in the gay community in New York City. Other stories, such as Debriefing is an experimental, challenging story with no boundaries.
After reading these short stories, I am eager to go back and explore once more Sontag’s serious, quiet and sophisticated world.