Op zich niet bijzonder interessant, afhankelijk van waarom je het leest.

Het geeft natuurlijk een goed beeld van de zieleroerselen van de jonge S.Sontag. Er komen een aantal mooie bedenkingen in voor hoewel veel daarvan geleend is van anderen.

Eerder te lezen omwille van de persoon dan om de inhoud. ( )

I'd read several reviews of a new biography of Sontag that referenced the publication of her diaries. I've read so many wonderful diaries - Virginia Woolf, Cosima Wagner, May Sarton, just to name a few - and so decided to try this rather than the biography (especially as the author apparently ended up strongly disliking her!).

Why on earth did David Rieff, her son, ever think this volume was worth the trouble of editing and publishing? Most of it is drivel; lots of it is just interminable lists; none of it is at all well written - what a mess it all is.

And now I confess I've ended up with the same judgment as that of her biographer. ( )

Susan Sontag is in particular well-known for her essays, but she also wrote novels. This first volume is a selection from her early diaries, written between 1947 and 1963. The diaries are not written in a flowing narrative style, rather more they are often mere jottings of ideas, lists of books she read, plays and films she watched, or people she met. The early years being the formative years, her reading shows a strong interest in left-wing writers, sociology and culture across the literatures in English, German and French. Sontag can be observed to travel extensively. Susan Sontag is often seen as an awe inspiring woman, but these early diaries show her vulnerability, as she started to come to terms with her queer identity, separated from her husband while taking care of her son David. Sexuality is openly discussed in the journal.

To read the journal it would be advisable to first read some of her essay collection, although the writing of those lay far in the future. The journal for 1962/3 refers to her work on her first novel, «The benefactor».

So far, two volumes of Sontag's diaries have been published. ( )

reading this off and on since xmas. it's a weird one...more later.

Vond dit heel ontroerend om te lezen, over de twijfels en onzekerheden van this 'grand old lady of the essay' ...discussie over 'legitimiteit' van deze publicatie...heeft ze gewild dat wij haar intieme dagboeken nu kunnen lezen? ( )