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A review by nhusain14
Debriefing: Collected Stories by Susan Sontag
3.0
Some of these stories were hit or miss for me, but much of her writing, as specific characters, stood out for its affection or humor. Sontag is very effective, in at least a few of these stories, at amplifying emotions at the end of a story about human relationships, like a crescendo of sorts. Some other lines that struck me for their brevity or memorableness or laugh out loud humor:
-- "A boyfriend had to be not just a best friend but taller, and only Peter qualified."
-- "When I was nine, which I did consider childhood, I’d lived for months of grief and suspense in Les Miserables. (It was the chapter in which Fantine was obliged to sell her hair that made a conscious socialist of me.)"
-- "Travel as accumulation. The colonialism of the soul, any soul, however well-intentioned. However chaste, however bent on being good."
-- "I saw you and thought, If I cannot say I love you I am lost. But I didn’t. Instead I am going to write a letter. The weakest move."
-- "A boyfriend had to be not just a best friend but taller, and only Peter qualified."
-- "When I was nine, which I did consider childhood, I’d lived for months of grief and suspense in Les Miserables. (It was the chapter in which Fantine was obliged to sell her hair that made a conscious socialist of me.)"
-- "Travel as accumulation. The colonialism of the soul, any soul, however well-intentioned. However chaste, however bent on being good."
-- "I saw you and thought, If I cannot say I love you I am lost. But I didn’t. Instead I am going to write a letter. The weakest move."