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Sempre Susan A Memoir of Susan Sontag Sigrid Nunez 9781935633228 Books

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Sempre Susan A Memoir of Susan Sontag Sigrid Nunez 9781935633228 Books

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.


Tags : Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag [Sigrid Nunez] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>A poignant, intimate memoir of one of America's most esteemed and fascinating cultural figures, and a deeply felt work of homage.</b> Novelist Sigrid Nunez was an aspiring writer when she first met Susan Sontag,Sigrid Nunez,Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag,Atlas,1935633228,American authors;Biography.,Authors, American;20th century;Biography.,1933-2004,20th century,Authors, American,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Literary Figures,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography & Autobiography Literary,Biography & Autobiography Women,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Literary,Sontag, Susan,,Women

Sempre Susan A Memoir of Susan Sontag Sigrid Nunez 9781935633228 Books Reviews

A page turner. In no way a biography of Susan Sontag and does not pretend to be. Just interesting to hear about her from an observant writer who lived in sontag's house for a time with Susan and her son.
I believe this is the problem with this book--and that the writer was so overwhelmed by her subject, that her own writing went down the tubes.

Nunez and Sontag's son met while Nunez applied for a job with Sontag. Based mostly on her looks, the son began a relationship with the young woman. (It is unclear about how deeply she was into the relationship with the young man.) Her own emotions are surprisingly missing throughout this account. Instead, we hear of some "tidbits" about her idol--and then a few more, with increasing criticism, which leads to the reader's distrust of Nunez. At least, it did mine. Her reflections on the time she lived with both Sontags are guarded, at best. She is also constantly name dropping and seems enamored by the life Susan Sontag had acquired more than the life she was living with Susan Sontag and son. As such, we seem to get a glimpse of a young woman who graduated from an ivy league situation where she had been "chosen" to be mentored by some academic hotshots whom she constantly compared and contrasted to Frau Sontag. Unfairly so. Sontag was NOT her professor. As far as "mentorship", one only gets from a mentor what that mentor has to give--to expect a certain professional bar, or code, is to court disappointment. This is what Nunez leaves the household with two failed relationships and little of the "star contacts" she seemed to expect she would make while living there.

For Sontag fans, this book will probably anger you. For Nunez fans...well...I don't know any, so, I cannot say.
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.
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.
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.
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.