Susan Sontag is a giantess of American letters and culture. I can't remember a specific moment when I became aware of her-- it feels like I've been peripherally aware of her my whole life. When I was a kid I definitely got Fran Lebowitz, Susan Sontag, Annie Liebovitz and Patti Smith confused. In my defense, they were/are stylish and avant garde tomboys and creatives, which was everything I aspired to, so they existed in an abstract intellectual feminine pantheon.

Some of Sontag's essay just don't hold up; how could they, when they were written about films and theater productions she reviewed in the 1960s? That said, it doesn't change the quality of her writing one iota, and it just means that some essay are going to be better than others. I would even suggest that those short on time focus on the first section of the book, which includes her influential essays "Against Interpretation" and "On Style." The film section includes essays on French New Wave, which are fun to read if you've seen the films being discussed, especially Breathless.

What I have especially enjoyed as I've delved into this volume, is how refreshing it can be to read essays when you've been through a serious fiction phase. I love books like this, that allow me to read one chapter and feel a sense of completion, without any nagging urging me on to the next chapter until it's finished. Each essay is its own entity, and they can be enjoyed as much singularly as taken together as a whole.