Susan Sontag: A Biography

The iconic image of Susan Sontag (1933–2004) that appeared on the dust jacket of The Benefactor, her first novel, reveals "a young woman of positively profligate beauty," writes art and literary critic Schreiber. He argues that this picture influenced Sontag's future success as a writer and activist. In this intriguing biography, Schreiber examines Sontag's life—the precocious adolescent reading Thomas Mann, the liberated graduate student intoxicated with Paris, the determined single parent making her way in New York City, and the celebrated writer famous for essays and glamour combined with great intellect. Schreiber's careful reading of Sontag's diaries, journals, interviews, and correspondence allows him to write authoritatively about her life and oeuvre; he critiques all her works, with special emphasis on the "celebrated collections of essays and four controversial novels." His numerous interviews, including those with Sontag's son, David Rieff, and writers Nadine Gordimer, Richard Howard, and Darryl Pinckney, inform his analysis of his subject's character and aspirations.