Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag

There are few books that literally I couldn't put down. This was one.A warts and all portrait of one of the most brilliant, polarizing personalities in the second half of the 20th Century, it gives you a remarkable sense of what she was like to be around, if little sense of her accomplishments. This book reminded me of Boswell's Life of Johnson, with a "you are there" immediacy, without having to worry if you are accomplished enough to be in the presence of this Great Woman. Nunez's ambivalent memories of Sontag are beautifully presented: she damns with faint praise and praises with faint damns alternatively.I recall seeing Sontag introduce a reading by WG Sebald at Barnes and Nobles on Union Square, and seeing her at a screening of a film when the Public Theater still showed them and wondering what it would have been like to converse with her. This book gives one of the fullest and seemingly truthful pictures of what that experience would have been like.The most vituperative reviews of this book have come from mostly male reviewers who clearly continue to have an issue with Sontag and what they see as her unearned fame, while they, blighted souls, are relegated to the dustbin of history. (Check out the Washington Post review for one). However, if you want to know why reading Sontag is worth your time, check out the Library of America's recent volume of her best work (neglecting, unfortunately, REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS). Then you will understand why this fascinating portrait is so riveting.

I loved Ingrid Nunez's book "The Friend" so much that I was curious about her other books. This is the first one that I read besides "The Friend," and it is excellent. It is about a frenemy of Nunez's, Susan Sontag, who loomed very large in American intellectual culture in the 1970s, and who mentored Nunez when she was trying to make it as a young writer. It is a portrait of a brilliant woman who also could be very, shall we say, challenging. Nunez's portrait is entertaining, perceptive and more than a bit cruel . . . as Sontag could apparently be, as well. It is also about the passing of time and how, in relationships, overawe can shift into a more mature perspective. Anyone interested in gossipy, vivid, dishy portraits of flamboyant public figures, and what it is like to be close with them. will enjoy this.

This was like getting to be a fly on the wall in Susan Sontag's apartment over the course of a few years. Nunez doesn't hold back. She isn't a gossip, nor does she trash Sontag. She just puts it out there, what she observed in their close relationship. And Nunez is a brilliant writer who sees plenty and puts it down clearly and engagingly. The book gets into both Sontag's personal habits AND her literary work. I gobbled this one up!

Stylistically, this is a very nicely written memoir that much of the time allows Sontag to speak for herself through remembered (accurately, one hopes) conversations and observations Sontag made. What struck me the most while reading it, is that very little of Sontag's intelligence comes through and if I only knew her from reading this book (literary and academic accomplishments aside), I would have found her of unremarkable intelligence. She appears to have had little insight into her own behavior, her observations of other people often seem defensive, small-minded (!), and not particularly interesting, and her attraction to cultural landmarks large and small comes across as shallow here, which presumably was usually not the case. By the end, I felt about Sontag (and this and David Rieff's memoir are the only biographical accounts I've read of her), the way she herself felt after meeting many of those she admired: disappointed. I'm not sure how much of that is due to Nunez's telling, versus the reality. It's hard to imagine that someone who so dazzled in the classroom and in her writing could be so consistently undazzling in her daily life.

As a long time fan of Susan Sontag, I was eager to read this memoir by novelist Sigrid Nunez. Beautifully written, the memoir evokes a complicated woman, not always likable but at all times fascinating. Nunez dated Sontag's son and lived with the two of them. Not only is Sontag the writer and the woman wonderfully portrayed, the depiction of New York City is also outstanding and very realistic.I loved this book even though it was somewhat disillusioning for me. However, the work stands on its own merits and the woman is not easily dismissed.

This book written by the girlfriend of Susan Sontag's son, Sigrid Nuñez, was an eye-opener to me. Nuñez and Sontag's only child, David Rieff, lived with Sontag for awhile; her observations as someone on-the-scene 24/7 provide an invaluable look into Sontag's life as a writer and mother. Sontag is revealed to be very complicated and a needy mother and friend. Sontag's relationship with her son as modern as it appears causes problems for the couple. Her depressive tendencies and brilliance seem to go hand-in-hand as it often does amongst those so gifted. I loved it and plan to keep it as part of my permanent Sontag library.

This is a thin read, which one can devour in a couple of hours. I was really looking forward to enjoying this memoir; yet in many ways it appears that Nunez is venting her personal grievances. As such, Sontag, a complex personality, is painted in a none too flattering light.

The books starts out with an author who describes Sontag in glowing terms. By the end, it becomes clear that the author really never liked Sontag at all.

easy to read, an 'expressionist' portrait of Sontag? I cannot read her writings, somewhat dated, but biographies or memoirs are always fascinating, this is a good one.

個性的な評論家、作家としてアメリカを代表する一人のスーザン・ソンタグと生活を共にしたニュネスの記録。小著とはいえ、自身も優れた作家であるニュネスの洞察力と批判精神、又ソンタグへの尊敬の念が反映された、珠玉の作品です。ソンタグのファン、又は逆に嫌悪感を抱いている人にとっても、ソンタグの素顔を知る上で有意義な読書体験になると思われます。個人的には、70年代の懐かしいニューヨークを彷彿とさせる、親密な本です。