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Histórias
Ao longo de toda a sua vida de escritora, Susan Sontag dedicou-se intermitentemente à ficção curta. Este livro passa pela alegoria, pela parábola e pela autobiografia e mostra uma personalidade em confronto com problemas não assimiláveis pelo ensaio, a forma mais praticada por Sontag. Aqui ela apanha fragmentos da vida, em relance, dramatiza os seus desgostos e temores mais íntimos e deixa que as personagens se apoderem dela como e quando querem. O resultado é um conjunto de grande versatilidade e charme. E imbuído do brilhantismo que define toda a obra de Susan Sontag.
368 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2019
124 people are currently reading
995 people want to read
About the author
Susan Sontag
240 books5,689 followersSusan Sontag was born in New York City on January 16, 1933, grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and attended high school in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. from the College of the University of Chicago and did graduate work in philosophy, literature, and theology at Harvard University and Saint Anne’s College, Oxford.
Her books include four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover, and In America; a collection of short stories, I, etcetera; several plays, including Alice in Bed and Lady from the Sea; and nine works of nonfiction, starting with Against Interpretation and including On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, Where the Stress Falls, Regarding the Pain of Others, and At the Same Time. In 1982, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published A Susan Sontag Reader.
Ms. Sontag wrote and directed four feature-length films: Duet for Cannibals (1969) and Brother Carl (1971), both in Sweden; Promised Lands (1974), made in Israel during the war of October 1973; and Unguided Tour (1983), from her short story of the same name, made in Italy. Her play Alice in Bed has had productions in the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Holland. Another play, Lady from the Sea, has been produced in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Korea.
Ms. Sontag also directed plays in the United States and Europe, including a staging of Beckett's Waiting for Godot in the summer of 1993 in besieged Sarajevo, where she spent much of the time between early 1993 and 1996 and was made an honorary citizen of the city.
A human rights activist for more than two decades, Ms. Sontag served from 1987 to 1989 as president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization dedicated to freedom of expression and the advancement of literature, from which platform she led a number of campaigns on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers.
Her stories and essays appeared in newspapers, magazines, and literary publications all over the world, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Art in America, Antaeus, Parnassus, The Threepenny Review, The Nation, and Granta. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages.
Among Ms. Sontag's many honors are the 2003 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the 2003 Prince of Asturias Prize, the 2001 Jerusalem Prize, the National Book Award for In America (2000), and the National Book Critics Circle Award for On Photography (1978). In 1992 she received the Malaparte Prize in Italy, and in 1999 she was named a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (she had been named an Officier in the same order in 1984). Between 1990 and 1995 she was a MacArthur Fellow.
Ms. Sontag died in New York City on December 28, 2004.
Her books include four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover, and In America; a collection of short stories, I, etcetera; several plays, including Alice in Bed and Lady from the Sea; and nine works of nonfiction, starting with Against Interpretation and including On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, Where the Stress Falls, Regarding the Pain of Others, and At the Same Time. In 1982, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published A Susan Sontag Reader.
Ms. Sontag wrote and directed four feature-length films: Duet for Cannibals (1969) and Brother Carl (1971), both in Sweden; Promised Lands (1974), made in Israel during the war of October 1973; and Unguided Tour (1983), from her short story of the same name, made in Italy. Her play Alice in Bed has had productions in the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Holland. Another play, Lady from the Sea, has been produced in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Korea.
Ms. Sontag also directed plays in the United States and Europe, including a staging of Beckett's Waiting for Godot in the summer of 1993 in besieged Sarajevo, where she spent much of the time between early 1993 and 1996 and was made an honorary citizen of the city.
A human rights activist for more than two decades, Ms. Sontag served from 1987 to 1989 as president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization dedicated to freedom of expression and the advancement of literature, from which platform she led a number of campaigns on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers.
Her stories and essays appeared in newspapers, magazines, and literary publications all over the world, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Art in America, Antaeus, Parnassus, The Threepenny Review, The Nation, and Granta. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages.
Among Ms. Sontag's many honors are the 2003 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the 2003 Prince of Asturias Prize, the 2001 Jerusalem Prize, the National Book Award for In America (2000), and the National Book Critics Circle Award for On Photography (1978). In 1992 she received the Malaparte Prize in Italy, and in 1999 she was named a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (she had been named an Officier in the same order in 1984). Between 1990 and 1995 she was a MacArthur Fellow.
Ms. Sontag died in New York City on December 28, 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
March 3, 2026
3,5*
O que as outras pessoas pensavam de mim suscitava-me pouquíssima reflexão, já que as outras pessoas me pareciam de vistas extraordinariamente curtas, bem como muito pouco curiosas, ao passo que eu ansiava por aprender tudo: a diferença exasperante entre mim e toda a gente que já tinha conhecido – até então. Tinha a certeza de que havia uma multidão igual a mim, noutro sítio. E nunca me passou pela cabeça que alguém me pudesse impedir de continuar assim.
- “Peregrinação”
“Histórias” reúne o melhor e o pior que Susan Sontag escreveu na vida. Por cada uma que raia a perfeição, há outra que leva ao enfado. Basta ler “alegoria” e “parábola” na sinopse para perceber porquê. Desta vez, porém, a dificuldade em apreciar os contos da autora não é um exclusivo meu, o que me conforta, como se pode comprovar pelas declarações de Sigrid Nunez em “Sempre Susan”:
“Na verdade, não parecia haver fortes defensores de sua ficção, nem mesmo entre seus amigos. Acostumou-se a ouvir que seria melhor se ater ao que fazia de maneira tão brilhante (a alguns olhos, talvez melhor do que qualquer outra pessoa). Isso a colocou (ou, mais acuradamente falando, ela se colocou) na posição de ser sua própria defensora. Estava sempre intercedendo em favor de sua ficção, tentando chamar atenção para ela, empurrando-a para as pessoas que não a apreciavam. Uma posição estranha e desmoralizante. Em particular e em público, repetidas vezes, insistia que, independentemente do que todos pudessem dizer, ela era uma escritora de ficção que por acaso escrevia ensaios, e não o contrário. O fato de ninguém ter comprado essa ideia foi uma das maiores frustrações de sua vida.
A tendência para impor os seus contos aos outros era tal que gorava as expectativas dos seus leitores que pensavam que iam ouvir uma palestra ou a leitura de um ensaio e eram brindados com uma das suas histórias, por sinal, bastante extensas. Não é de admirar que ambicionasse ter “um bocadinho de Lizzie”, referindo-se à sua amiga Elizabeth Hardwick, que considerava a rainha dos adjectivos, já que a sua escrita é amiúde seca, vaga e prolixa.
Além de “Declaração” e “A Maneira como Vivemos Agora”, que destaquei com recensões individuais, assinalo também “O Boneco”, sobre um homem que criou um duplo de plástico para o substituir…
Os problemas deste mundo apenas são verdadeiramente resolvidos de duas maneiras: através da extinção ou da duplicação. As épocas anteriores possuíam tão-só a primeira opção. Mas não vejo razão para não aproveitar as maravilhas da tecnologia moderna em prol da libertação pessoal. Posso escolher. E não sendo suicida por natureza, decidi duplicar-me.
…”Baby”, um conto extremamente inventivo na forma, sobre um casal que faz psicoterapia durante anos devido ao seu filho problemático…
Dizer-lhe que chorámos de autêntica alegria quando nasceu. Dizer-lhe, quando ele nasceu, nós começámos a morrer.
…”Projeto para uma Viagem à China”, apontamentos autobiográficos sobre a China, onde o pai trabalhou e morreu quando ela tinha cinco anos…
O David usa o anel do meu pai. O anel, um lanço branco de seda com as iniciais do meu pai bordadas em fio de seda preto, e uma carteira de pele de porco curtida com o nome dele gravado em pequenas letras douradas, no interior, são tudo o que possuo do que lhe pertenceu.
…mas especialmente “Peregrinação” onde conta sobre a visita que fez a Thomas Mann quando era adolescente. Desafiada por um amigo, que trata de combinar todos os pormenores com a mulher de Mann, ainda que a contragosto, Susan não resiste a ir tomar chá com o grande escritor alemão que se exilara nos Estados Unidos em 1938, com a ascensão do regime nazi. O constrangimento, a falta de assunto, o medo de não parecer inteligente, a falta de correspondência entre escritor e indivíduo, tudo me leva a compadecer da autora, pois também é isso que me impede, por exemplo, de ir a sessões de autógrafos dos meus autores preferidos.
Anos mais tarde, já depois de me ter tornado escritora e de conhecer muitos outros escritores, viria a aprender a ser mais tolerante em relação ao hiato entre a pessoa e a obra. E, no entanto, mesmo agora, aquele encontro continua a parecer-me ilícito, indevido. Por experiência própria, as recordações mais profundas correspondem, com grande frequência, a recordações de desconforto.
Peregrinação-5*
Projeto para uma viagem à China-4*
Espíritos Americanos-2*
A Cena da Carta-DNF
O boneco-4*
Viagem sem Guia-3*
Velhas Queixas Revisitadas-DNF
Baby-4*
Dr. Jekyll- DNF
Declaração-4,5*
A Maneira Como Vivemos agora-4,5*
O que as outras pessoas pensavam de mim suscitava-me pouquíssima reflexão, já que as outras pessoas me pareciam de vistas extraordinariamente curtas, bem como muito pouco curiosas, ao passo que eu ansiava por aprender tudo: a diferença exasperante entre mim e toda a gente que já tinha conhecido – até então. Tinha a certeza de que havia uma multidão igual a mim, noutro sítio. E nunca me passou pela cabeça que alguém me pudesse impedir de continuar assim.
- “Peregrinação”
“Histórias” reúne o melhor e o pior que Susan Sontag escreveu na vida. Por cada uma que raia a perfeição, há outra que leva ao enfado. Basta ler “alegoria” e “parábola” na sinopse para perceber porquê. Desta vez, porém, a dificuldade em apreciar os contos da autora não é um exclusivo meu, o que me conforta, como se pode comprovar pelas declarações de Sigrid Nunez em “Sempre Susan”:
“Na verdade, não parecia haver fortes defensores de sua ficção, nem mesmo entre seus amigos. Acostumou-se a ouvir que seria melhor se ater ao que fazia de maneira tão brilhante (a alguns olhos, talvez melhor do que qualquer outra pessoa). Isso a colocou (ou, mais acuradamente falando, ela se colocou) na posição de ser sua própria defensora. Estava sempre intercedendo em favor de sua ficção, tentando chamar atenção para ela, empurrando-a para as pessoas que não a apreciavam. Uma posição estranha e desmoralizante. Em particular e em público, repetidas vezes, insistia que, independentemente do que todos pudessem dizer, ela era uma escritora de ficção que por acaso escrevia ensaios, e não o contrário. O fato de ninguém ter comprado essa ideia foi uma das maiores frustrações de sua vida.
A tendência para impor os seus contos aos outros era tal que gorava as expectativas dos seus leitores que pensavam que iam ouvir uma palestra ou a leitura de um ensaio e eram brindados com uma das suas histórias, por sinal, bastante extensas. Não é de admirar que ambicionasse ter “um bocadinho de Lizzie”, referindo-se à sua amiga Elizabeth Hardwick, que considerava a rainha dos adjectivos, já que a sua escrita é amiúde seca, vaga e prolixa.
Além de “Declaração” e “A Maneira como Vivemos Agora”, que destaquei com recensões individuais, assinalo também “O Boneco”, sobre um homem que criou um duplo de plástico para o substituir…
Os problemas deste mundo apenas são verdadeiramente resolvidos de duas maneiras: através da extinção ou da duplicação. As épocas anteriores possuíam tão-só a primeira opção. Mas não vejo razão para não aproveitar as maravilhas da tecnologia moderna em prol da libertação pessoal. Posso escolher. E não sendo suicida por natureza, decidi duplicar-me.
…”Baby”, um conto extremamente inventivo na forma, sobre um casal que faz psicoterapia durante anos devido ao seu filho problemático…
Dizer-lhe que chorámos de autêntica alegria quando nasceu. Dizer-lhe, quando ele nasceu, nós começámos a morrer.
…”Projeto para uma Viagem à China”, apontamentos autobiográficos sobre a China, onde o pai trabalhou e morreu quando ela tinha cinco anos…
O David usa o anel do meu pai. O anel, um lanço branco de seda com as iniciais do meu pai bordadas em fio de seda preto, e uma carteira de pele de porco curtida com o nome dele gravado em pequenas letras douradas, no interior, são tudo o que possuo do que lhe pertenceu.
…mas especialmente “Peregrinação” onde conta sobre a visita que fez a Thomas Mann quando era adolescente. Desafiada por um amigo, que trata de combinar todos os pormenores com a mulher de Mann, ainda que a contragosto, Susan não resiste a ir tomar chá com o grande escritor alemão que se exilara nos Estados Unidos em 1938, com a ascensão do regime nazi. O constrangimento, a falta de assunto, o medo de não parecer inteligente, a falta de correspondência entre escritor e indivíduo, tudo me leva a compadecer da autora, pois também é isso que me impede, por exemplo, de ir a sessões de autógrafos dos meus autores preferidos.
Anos mais tarde, já depois de me ter tornado escritora e de conhecer muitos outros escritores, viria a aprender a ser mais tolerante em relação ao hiato entre a pessoa e a obra. E, no entanto, mesmo agora, aquele encontro continua a parecer-me ilícito, indevido. Por experiência própria, as recordações mais profundas correspondem, com grande frequência, a recordações de desconforto.
Peregrinação-5*
Projeto para uma viagem à China-4*
Espíritos Americanos-2*
A Cena da Carta-DNF
O boneco-4*
Viagem sem Guia-3*
Velhas Queixas Revisitadas-DNF
Baby-4*
Dr. Jekyll- DNF
Declaração-4,5*
A Maneira Como Vivemos agora-4,5*
November 8, 2018
This was at parts brilliant, at parts a bit underdeveloped and confusing. Sontag is known for her essay writing but once I saw that she has written short stories too, I needed to pick this up. All the stories are so different from each other. Some of them feel more like experiments instead of finished short stories, and some are some of the best short stories I have read in a very long time. So yes, a mixed bag and very difficult to rate. I haven't picked up any nonfiction by her so I am keeping my fingers crossed that her essays will be as brilliant as some of the stories in this.
April 1, 2019
Esperava muito mais da Sontag. Nunca lhe tinha lido a ficção e não me deslumbrou.
O primeiro texto é soberbo, sobretudo porque não estou certa de que seja o relato de um evento real (li os diários dela contemporâneos desse episódio e nem uma só entrada sobre o assunto...). A partir daí é sempre a descer com ligeiras e pontuais subidas.
O primeiro texto é soberbo, sobretudo porque não estou certa de que seja o relato de um evento real (li os diários dela contemporâneos desse episódio e nem uma só entrada sobre o assunto...). A partir daí é sempre a descer com ligeiras e pontuais subidas.
November 19, 2024
2.5
Die Kurzgeschichten waren mir so egal, nur die erste ist haften geblieben, in der zwei Jugendliche auf ihren Lieblingsautoren Thomas Mann treffen und bei ihm zu Kaffee und Kuchen eingeladen werden
Die Kurzgeschichten waren mir so egal, nur die erste ist haften geblieben, in der zwei Jugendliche auf ihren Lieblingsautoren Thomas Mann treffen und bei ihm zu Kaffee und Kuchen eingeladen werden
May 19, 2018
Until Stories, I had only known Susan Sontag‘s work as an essayist. However, when it came to my attention that Penguin Random House was publishing Stories, in 2017, I felt compelled to know this other side of Sontag’s writing.
The author wrote these stories to fathom the world she lives in, to find her place in it and to understand her mind and thoughts.
Sontag's voice and writing style varies throughout these eleven short stories. One of my favourite from this collection, called Pilgrimage, is perhaps the most traditional. Sontag reveals the first great encounter of her life: the day she met Thomas Mann. She was only fifteen years-old. However, as I said, her register changes completely throughout the book. The influence of science fiction or of the New French Novel is explicit in other texts, for instance.
Although I loved some of the tales, there were others that weren’t so successful, in my opinion. Old Complaints Revisited – another allegory – was a very dull text to read. I nearly gave up on that story.
Overall, I think Susan Sontag was one of the greatest intellectuals of last century and that is enough reason to recommend Stories. It’s a book one slowly savours and apprehends.
I’d like to thank Penguin Random House UK for sending me a copy of the book.
For more reviews, follow me on Instagram: @booksturnyouon
The author wrote these stories to fathom the world she lives in, to find her place in it and to understand her mind and thoughts.
Sontag's voice and writing style varies throughout these eleven short stories. One of my favourite from this collection, called Pilgrimage, is perhaps the most traditional. Sontag reveals the first great encounter of her life: the day she met Thomas Mann. She was only fifteen years-old. However, as I said, her register changes completely throughout the book. The influence of science fiction or of the New French Novel is explicit in other texts, for instance.
Although I loved some of the tales, there were others that weren’t so successful, in my opinion. Old Complaints Revisited – another allegory – was a very dull text to read. I nearly gave up on that story.
Overall, I think Susan Sontag was one of the greatest intellectuals of last century and that is enough reason to recommend Stories. It’s a book one slowly savours and apprehends.
I’d like to thank Penguin Random House UK for sending me a copy of the book.
For more reviews, follow me on Instagram: @booksturnyouon
May 5, 2019
Sontag parece elegir las palabras una por una. La riqueza de su lenguaje es increíble, hace que se saboreen las oraciones, más allá de qué dicen. Sus cuentos me contrariaron, los disfruté mucho o nada. Algunas historias parecían apuntes esporádicos, desordenados, sin fundamento, con oraciones geniales dispersas por el texto. Otras historias abrumadoras, originales, divertidas, profundas, riquísimas. Me quedo con estas. Y con ganas de repetir.
May 10, 2021
My favourite story from the collection was ‘the letter scene’. along with some others it rlly touched me, and I loved her unconventional writing style. Perspective stitched together, one sided conversations etc. I did find sometime her message came quite convoluted but still enjoyed it. Sometimes overtly autobiographical sometimes not, I’m looking forward to reading some of her non fiction essays.
October 22, 2025
Most people know of this author's essays and she's quoted all the time even on Tumblr (in the past) and Twitter (now), so imagine my surprise when I found out she had a short story collection too. It's nothing like what I imagined. The foreword said that they should feel contemporary in the year of 2017, but I feel like literary fiction has evolved very significantly in the past decade, so these stories feel dated but only in comparison to what's being published now.
What's really interesting is that the collection does not have a unifying theme save the fact that they were all written by a famous essayist. Each story is very different from the next. Some sound plausibly autobiographical ('Pilgrimage'), others are abstract and more challenging to figure out, with lots of references to the concept of Literature ('Project for a Trip to China', 'The Letter Scene', 'Unguided Tour', 'Debriefing') Some even feel like novellas disguised as short stories ('Old Complaints Revisited', 'Doctor Jekyll'). Some have dark humour and an unexpected bite ('Baby').
My favourite is 'American Spirits', which reads a little like a fable for repressed middle aged women, encouraging them to throw aside patriarchal institutions like wife-and-motherhood to live and love freely. I also loved 'The Dummy', in which a man creates a machine replica of himself to live his life and actually does it very well. His wife, children, and colleagues all believe it's him. One day, this dummy falls in love with a colleague and is driven to the heights of passion, ruining the man's plans of shirking his familial and societal duties. To solve this new problem, the man makes a second dummy. I would love to assign this story to a class of teenagers.
What's really interesting is that the collection does not have a unifying theme save the fact that they were all written by a famous essayist. Each story is very different from the next. Some sound plausibly autobiographical ('Pilgrimage'), others are abstract and more challenging to figure out, with lots of references to the concept of Literature ('Project for a Trip to China', 'The Letter Scene', 'Unguided Tour', 'Debriefing') Some even feel like novellas disguised as short stories ('Old Complaints Revisited', 'Doctor Jekyll'). Some have dark humour and an unexpected bite ('Baby').
My favourite is 'American Spirits', which reads a little like a fable for repressed middle aged women, encouraging them to throw aside patriarchal institutions like wife-and-motherhood to live and love freely. I also loved 'The Dummy', in which a man creates a machine replica of himself to live his life and actually does it very well. His wife, children, and colleagues all believe it's him. One day, this dummy falls in love with a colleague and is driven to the heights of passion, ruining the man's plans of shirking his familial and societal duties. To solve this new problem, the man makes a second dummy. I would love to assign this story to a class of teenagers.
October 15, 2021
Until I saw this collection in the public library racks, I'd never associated Susan Sontag with fiction. Other than her essays, my only other experience of reading her was the much acclaimed book 'On photography'. The first story itself, titled 'Pilgrimage', was quite a surprise, portraying her awkward meeting with Thomas Mann in her childhood days. The whole narrative leading up to the meeting, her anger with her friend for dialing up Mann's house directly and requesting for the meeting and her own wish for that meeting not to happen, all that make for an engaging read as much as their meeting with the writer, during which he is surprised at their "serious" reading at that young age.
The story 'Project for a trip to China', with its fragmented structure and its subject of travel, reminded me of 'Flights' by Olga Tokarczuk. 'Old complaints revisited' is also an elaborate plan, though not a fragmented narrative, with the protagonist planning to leave from a secret organisation. Structure-wise, the story 'Baby' is quite inventive with each successive chapter having a couple and taking turns meeting a counsellor to discuss an issue that has been simmering between them. We get to see only their answers to the counsellor's questions, not the questions themselves, and often end up playing a guessing game, until the reveal in the end. But, it has to be said that not every story in this collection is as engrossing as the best ones in the collection.
The story 'Project for a trip to China', with its fragmented structure and its subject of travel, reminded me of 'Flights' by Olga Tokarczuk. 'Old complaints revisited' is also an elaborate plan, though not a fragmented narrative, with the protagonist planning to leave from a secret organisation. Structure-wise, the story 'Baby' is quite inventive with each successive chapter having a couple and taking turns meeting a counsellor to discuss an issue that has been simmering between them. We get to see only their answers to the counsellor's questions, not the questions themselves, and often end up playing a guessing game, until the reveal in the end. But, it has to be said that not every story in this collection is as engrossing as the best ones in the collection.
Read
March 24, 2020“Histórias”de Susan Suntag reúne um conjunto de textos ficcionais, através dos quais o leitor capta dimensões íntimas e de certo modo autobiográficas, através de metáforas, entrecruzadas com abordagens mais pessoais. Obra constituída por onze contos que abordam temas diversos que mostram aspetos dramáticos da vida humana, nomeadamente, a perda, o suicídio de uma amiga, e o casamento, entre outros.
CDU:
821.111(73)-34
Livro recomendado PNL2027 - 2019 2.º Sem. - Literatura - dos 15-18 anos - maiores 18 anos
http://pnl2027.gov.pt/np4/livrospnl?c...
CDU:
821.111(73)-34
Livro recomendado PNL2027 - 2019 2.º Sem. - Literatura - dos 15-18 anos - maiores 18 anos
http://pnl2027.gov.pt/np4/livrospnl?c...
January 22, 2026
ich wollte es so sehr lieben, aber häufig confused :-/
August 6, 2025
Great but mostly in hindsight? She’s acting like Neil gaiman here
January 27, 2022
I’m finally done with Susan Sontag’s short stories and it’s hard to rate because some of the stories are breathtaking while the others are confusing and hard to follow.
While I liked her essays, short story writing doesn’t seem to be her strong point.
Although the following stories definitely stuck with me: American Spirits, The Dummy, Baby and Doctor Jekyll. Especially, “Baby” you might think it’s a normal therapy session story but it’s actually more than that. It leaves you wondering about existence, mental health or whatever the hell Sontag felt like writing during the modern era.
This is the only striking quote for me:
What doesn’t kill you leaves scars.
I would recommend this to artists and fans of Sontag but read at your own risk because most of the stories are tough to read.
3.5 stars i guess
While I liked her essays, short story writing doesn’t seem to be her strong point.
Although the following stories definitely stuck with me: American Spirits, The Dummy, Baby and Doctor Jekyll. Especially, “Baby” you might think it’s a normal therapy session story but it’s actually more than that. It leaves you wondering about existence, mental health or whatever the hell Sontag felt like writing during the modern era.
This is the only striking quote for me:
What doesn’t kill you leaves scars.
I would recommend this to artists and fans of Sontag but read at your own risk because most of the stories are tough to read.
3.5 stars i guess
December 13, 2019
I’ve only ever known Susan Sontag as an essayist (an amazing one at that), so to read her fiction and witness a completely different side of her was an honour. Some of the stories in here were absolutely brilliant (Debriefing, Dummy, A Letter Scene come to mind) while others felt... confusing, fragmented, undeveloped, and a little disappointing. Nevertheless, reading this collection was a pleasure. It felt intimate, getting a glimpse of the uncertainty and fickleness of a woman who’s popularly known for her direct, trailblazing boldness.
November 28, 2023
Sorry girl. Fattade ingenting
Jag gillar Sontag såklart men hennes noveller var otroligt röriga. Det fanns ingen röd tråd och många kändes som koncept snarare än färdiga berättelser.
Jag gillar Sontag såklart men hennes noveller var otroligt röriga. Det fanns ingen röd tråd och många kändes som koncept snarare än färdiga berättelser.
June 6, 2024
znormalizujmy nie wyjaśnianie kontekstu ! osobiście uwielbiam Susan za pisanie w tym stylu i jeśli kiedykolwiek coś w życiu napiszę to za przykładem tej pani, dziękuję pięknie mwah mwah
June 26, 2024
Vissa va skitbra, vissa kändes bara som spridda tankar vilket jag inte va skitkåt på.
February 8, 2026
NOW we’re talking, 2026!!!!
October 20, 2025
the first few stories didn't stick with me as much as the last clump did. Doctor Jekyll, The Way We Live Now, and American Spirits were my top three (The Way We Live Now easily takes first place).
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July 26, 2023Sonunda 1 sene sonra bitirdim arkadaşlar (ay ama bunu arkadaşlarıma yazdım yoksa yazarın dilini çok beğendim çok başarılı)
June 30, 2019
Al revés que la mayoría de la gente, lo primero que leo de Susan Sontag no es su obra ensayística, sino estas Stories. Y aun así no pude evitar caer en el prejuicio de que esta otra faceta suya, menos conocida y ya descrita en el prólogo como ocasional, estaría algo así como infradesarrollada. Vaya tontería, ¿no? Al final me ha venido incluso bien no tener demasiadas expectativas, porque de ese modo esta lectura ha acabado siendo una sorpresa más grata. Esta antología es como una caja de bombones surtidos que llevara desde el de chocolate con leche más clásico, hasta el más moderno y de diseño con sabor a gin tonic con cardamomo. Hay narraciones de corte tradicional y otras historias más experimentales. Hay recuentos autobiográficos, como la historia de la inesperada visita, cuando era adolescente, a su admirado Thomas Mann; hay, por ejemplo, un relato sobre un hombre que se hace construir un autómata a su imagen y semejanza para que lo suplante en sus obligaciones laborales y familiares, y también un desconcertante diálogo de unos padres con un psicoterapeuta, acerca de un hijo que es uno pero nunca parece el mismo. Diría que, también como pasa con los bombones, entre estos cuentos los hay que gustan más y otros menos, pero ninguno desmerece el conjunto. Esa habilidad del buen escritor que hace que uno avance con ganas, hasta con cierta ansiedad, desde las primeras palabras hasta las últimas de una historia, esa habilidad la tiene Susan Sontag más que de sobra. Habría podido seguir comiendo, digo leyendo, durante muchas más páginas.
May 18, 2020
(Rated down from 3.5/5)
This collection consists of all Sontag's short stories, many of which are semi-autobiographical (as editor Benjamin Taylor writes in his foreword, Sontag saw short stories as a way to dive into the personal).
Sontag is obviously a formidable writer, but not all these stories showcase her brilliance. There's a strong sense that she's using them to convey her own thoughts and feelings, and occasionally, these supposedly "underlying" ideas overwhelmed the narrative instead. Such less successful stories came across a bit fable-y, and while I didn't particularly hate being "preached" at, the transparency of it all did make me feel less engaged - I couldn't see the plot/characters as anything but channels through which Sontag voiced her opinions. In fact, some of them felt more like personal essays more than anything else.
For me, the more compelling stories were those which carried ideas that I personally identified with. Like 'Pilgrimage', which is about the fear of meeting your idols. Or 'The Dummy', which discusses the unbearable ennui everyday life can bring. And I can't post this review without talking about 'A Letter Scene', which I found to be an extremely moving examination of the written word as a vessel for human emotion, and how written communication can carry unique weight/significance.
All in all, this collection showed a different side of Sontag, which, while not completely mind blowing, was still really intriguing nonetheless.
This collection consists of all Sontag's short stories, many of which are semi-autobiographical (as editor Benjamin Taylor writes in his foreword, Sontag saw short stories as a way to dive into the personal).
Sontag is obviously a formidable writer, but not all these stories showcase her brilliance. There's a strong sense that she's using them to convey her own thoughts and feelings, and occasionally, these supposedly "underlying" ideas overwhelmed the narrative instead. Such less successful stories came across a bit fable-y, and while I didn't particularly hate being "preached" at, the transparency of it all did make me feel less engaged - I couldn't see the plot/characters as anything but channels through which Sontag voiced her opinions. In fact, some of them felt more like personal essays more than anything else.
For me, the more compelling stories were those which carried ideas that I personally identified with. Like 'Pilgrimage', which is about the fear of meeting your idols. Or 'The Dummy', which discusses the unbearable ennui everyday life can bring. And I can't post this review without talking about 'A Letter Scene', which I found to be an extremely moving examination of the written word as a vessel for human emotion, and how written communication can carry unique weight/significance.
All in all, this collection showed a different side of Sontag, which, while not completely mind blowing, was still really intriguing nonetheless.
November 9, 2018
I quote from the foreword of the book written by Benjamin Taylor "Craving more uncertainty than the essay allowed for, Sontag turned from time to time to a form in which one need only persevere, making up one's mind about nothing: the infinitely flexible, ever amenable short story." This is probably the reason why many of the stories in the book are difficult to read and to comprehend. I often find myself lost in her track of thought, confused by what is happening. Perhaps I am disadvaantaged being neither American nor lived in her time. My favourites are "pilgrimage" and "the dummy". In "pilgrimage" , I caught a glimpse of the genius writer in the making as she reminisced about her exploits as a teenager. In "the dummy", she made our fantasy of conjuring up a substitute to go through the motion of our dreary lives seems so possible. It was fun to read.
March 29, 2024
As an essayist, it is not surprising for Sontag to turn to stories as a personal medium of discovery. It’s very clear that most of these are written for herself, some parts only she can figure out. It reminded me of what little amateur scribbles I write when I need to process things that happen in my life, and it seems to me that she did the same. A very familiar yet very distant set of stories. I read it not with a critical lense toward her fiction-writing abilities, but as a window into the intimate parts of her soul, so I cannot say this review of mine has a lot to do with the style and prose itself. But even if you are only interested in the stories by themselves, I think they will satisfy that too.
February 26, 2023
Only knowing Susan Sontag’s diaries and essays so far, her short stories came somewhat as a surprise to me — didn’t expect that surreal, almost kafkaesk-ish writing style / content.
I especially loved the “The Letter Scene”, which is maybe more resembling her diary writing in its fragmentary style; as well as “Project for a Trip to China”.
Most stories, like “The Dummy”, “American Spirits” and most of all “Baby” I can’t say I ‘liked’ as in really liked and enjoyed; however they haunted me for quite some time after reading it — feeling uneasy, tense, like a shift in reality; which, in my eyes, is a great gem in writing.
I especially loved the “The Letter Scene”, which is maybe more resembling her diary writing in its fragmentary style; as well as “Project for a Trip to China”.
Most stories, like “The Dummy”, “American Spirits” and most of all “Baby” I can’t say I ‘liked’ as in really liked and enjoyed; however they haunted me for quite some time after reading it — feeling uneasy, tense, like a shift in reality; which, in my eyes, is a great gem in writing.
May 5, 2026
You can’t convince me that if this collection was submitted by a non-Susan-Sontag author, it would be published. The foreword notes that “Her stories spring, by contrast, from a need to remain in suspense, to keep hold of contradictions, but also to make this perplexity bear fruit.” The perplexity is certainly presented, but she doesn’t do much, in my reading of most of these stories, to fully flesh out its significance or make us feel its significance.
I get that when you do experimental stuff, it’s not all going to be a hit, and a lot of this was quite experimental. But man, she was really pushing it here. I think there were lots of not only good ideas, but also surprisingly prescient glimpses into the future. I have no qualms with the topic choices. But the style was just so strange. But I thought the best pieces were the ones that read the most like essays. The fiction generally seemed more like an intellectual exercise in wordplay, abstraction, and absurdism than actual storytelling. And she was clearly trying to be so clever with her names, but I found them deeply off-putting.
Story-by-story reviews below, but first, I'll put a quote from Project for a Trip to China, just to show you what I mean by the bizarreness of the writing.
“Will I be stopped by a conflict with literature?
A nonexistent conflict, according to Mao Tse-tung in his Yenan lectures and elsewhere, if literature serves the people.
But we are ruled by words. (Literature tells us what is happening to words.) More to the point, we are ruled by quotations. Not only in China, but everywhere else as well. So much for the transmissibility of the past! Disunite sentences, fracture memories.
—When my memories become slogans, I no longer need them. No longer believe them.
—Another lie?
—An inadvertent truth?
Death doesn’t die. And the problems of literature are not fading away…” (55-56)
I'm sure there's something to be made from that, but I'm not sure what. Maybe that's on me. Maybe I just don't get it.
Pilgrimage — 4.5 stars
This was essentially just a lovely personal essay about a writer reflecting on their (extremely dorky) teenaged self having a rather bizarre meeting with a famous writer. Because we got real detail and internality, it was able to capture teenaged embarrassment and the moment of realizing that people cannot often live up to their legends. Plus, it was just an earnest retelling of an interaction. Again, it was pretty much just a personal essay.
Project for a Trip to China — 2 stars
What is this? Just sort of a hodgepodge of lists and fragments of thoughts about orientalism and the narrator’s (Sontag’s) desire to visit China where her parents had once lived. But again, the style was bizarre and didn’t seem fully fleshed out. There were interesting moments for sure, but lots felt like ramblings.
American Spirits — 1 star
I actually thought maybe I was missing something with all these seemingly random references in this story, so I looked it up, and no, everybody thinks they’re bizarre. An unpleasant story with an unclear moral. Deeply dislikable read.
The Letter Scene — 1.5 stars
I didn’t really get it, and I didn’t enjoy it. Just jumps around seemingly far more than necessary.
The Dummy — 4 stars
Despite predating AI as we know it by a significant margin, I think this story hits on a pretty solid critique of using AI to outsource the most fundamental parts of living (my reading). Also an interesting read on going outside of one’s own shoes and observing the monotony of life. In this case, it’s just subbing in a robot for your entire being so you can have “freedom” but then not making anything of that same “freedom” other than monitoring them. An interesting premise with a fun ending. Again, just not super compelling writing.
Unguided tour — 2 stars
This was fine, I guess. It probably would have just been better as an essay. The story part only distracted and dawdled from the most interesting parts.
Old Complaints Revisited — 2.5 stars
This could have been a biting critique of something, if only Sontag had committed to doing more than going for vague generalizations. While I get the appeal of being broad to include the many groups she could have been talking about, I found that I just spent most of the piece trying to figure out what she was talking about. Academia? Writers? Editors? Translators? Communists? Jews? Liberals? Anti-War Movement? Anti-Orthodoxy in every form? Sure, there’s something to be said that the piece describes them all, but I felt like it was just trying to be cute in its head fakes.
Baby — 3 stars
A biting critique of many of the problems I normally think of as associated with 21st century parenting, including over-diagnosing, premature diagnoses, helicopter parenting, assuming a child to be perfect and the rest of the world at fault, outsourcing of responsibility, etc. And kind of neat in how much ground it covers. But I’m not really sure what we gain from the form being one-side of dialogue and achoronological.
Doctor Jekyll — NA
Will hold off on being too critical, because I think you need to have read the original to understand this at all, and I have not.
Debriefing — 2 stars
Bizarre, frightening, and bleak.
The Way We Live Now — 5 stars
I thought this was a deeply moving way of portraying the way that terminal illness (in this case not-explicitly stated, but clearly AIDS) not only torments the diseased, but deeply impacts the family and friends, including creating strange tensions in those relationships as a sort of pecking order of loved ones emerges.
I get that when you do experimental stuff, it’s not all going to be a hit, and a lot of this was quite experimental. But man, she was really pushing it here. I think there were lots of not only good ideas, but also surprisingly prescient glimpses into the future. I have no qualms with the topic choices. But the style was just so strange. But I thought the best pieces were the ones that read the most like essays. The fiction generally seemed more like an intellectual exercise in wordplay, abstraction, and absurdism than actual storytelling. And she was clearly trying to be so clever with her names, but I found them deeply off-putting.
Story-by-story reviews below, but first, I'll put a quote from Project for a Trip to China, just to show you what I mean by the bizarreness of the writing.
“Will I be stopped by a conflict with literature?
A nonexistent conflict, according to Mao Tse-tung in his Yenan lectures and elsewhere, if literature serves the people.
But we are ruled by words. (Literature tells us what is happening to words.) More to the point, we are ruled by quotations. Not only in China, but everywhere else as well. So much for the transmissibility of the past! Disunite sentences, fracture memories.
—When my memories become slogans, I no longer need them. No longer believe them.
—Another lie?
—An inadvertent truth?
Death doesn’t die. And the problems of literature are not fading away…” (55-56)
I'm sure there's something to be made from that, but I'm not sure what. Maybe that's on me. Maybe I just don't get it.
Pilgrimage — 4.5 stars
This was essentially just a lovely personal essay about a writer reflecting on their (extremely dorky) teenaged self having a rather bizarre meeting with a famous writer. Because we got real detail and internality, it was able to capture teenaged embarrassment and the moment of realizing that people cannot often live up to their legends. Plus, it was just an earnest retelling of an interaction. Again, it was pretty much just a personal essay.
Project for a Trip to China — 2 stars
What is this? Just sort of a hodgepodge of lists and fragments of thoughts about orientalism and the narrator’s (Sontag’s) desire to visit China where her parents had once lived. But again, the style was bizarre and didn’t seem fully fleshed out. There were interesting moments for sure, but lots felt like ramblings.
American Spirits — 1 star
I actually thought maybe I was missing something with all these seemingly random references in this story, so I looked it up, and no, everybody thinks they’re bizarre. An unpleasant story with an unclear moral. Deeply dislikable read.
The Letter Scene — 1.5 stars
I didn’t really get it, and I didn’t enjoy it. Just jumps around seemingly far more than necessary.
The Dummy — 4 stars
Despite predating AI as we know it by a significant margin, I think this story hits on a pretty solid critique of using AI to outsource the most fundamental parts of living (my reading). Also an interesting read on going outside of one’s own shoes and observing the monotony of life. In this case, it’s just subbing in a robot for your entire being so you can have “freedom” but then not making anything of that same “freedom” other than monitoring them. An interesting premise with a fun ending. Again, just not super compelling writing.
Unguided tour — 2 stars
This was fine, I guess. It probably would have just been better as an essay. The story part only distracted and dawdled from the most interesting parts.
Old Complaints Revisited — 2.5 stars
This could have been a biting critique of something, if only Sontag had committed to doing more than going for vague generalizations. While I get the appeal of being broad to include the many groups she could have been talking about, I found that I just spent most of the piece trying to figure out what she was talking about. Academia? Writers? Editors? Translators? Communists? Jews? Liberals? Anti-War Movement? Anti-Orthodoxy in every form? Sure, there’s something to be said that the piece describes them all, but I felt like it was just trying to be cute in its head fakes.
Baby — 3 stars
A biting critique of many of the problems I normally think of as associated with 21st century parenting, including over-diagnosing, premature diagnoses, helicopter parenting, assuming a child to be perfect and the rest of the world at fault, outsourcing of responsibility, etc. And kind of neat in how much ground it covers. But I’m not really sure what we gain from the form being one-side of dialogue and achoronological.
Doctor Jekyll — NA
Will hold off on being too critical, because I think you need to have read the original to understand this at all, and I have not.
Debriefing — 2 stars
Bizarre, frightening, and bleak.
The Way We Live Now — 5 stars
I thought this was a deeply moving way of portraying the way that terminal illness (in this case not-explicitly stated, but clearly AIDS) not only torments the diseased, but deeply impacts the family and friends, including creating strange tensions in those relationships as a sort of pecking order of loved ones emerges.
March 3, 2019
I'm still not sure how to rate this book, they are short stories after all and I can tell you the ones I loved and the ones that I'm not sure I understand. yet these stories are somewhat cohesive with each other in a way that is hard to explain without being too simplistic or too complicated. And I guess that's why I love and enjoy her writing and can only rate it with 5/5.
July 10, 2019
Anything after Proust is going to be a disappointment but thought these were absolute garbage when I read the first few. I persevered because it’s Susan Sontag and there were some interesting common threads and insights linking them together. The last couple are really good. I loved the ‘Baby’ story.
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