Regarding Susan Sontag

Filmmaker Nancy Kates's HBO-aired documentary brings Susan Sontag (1933-2004) to life in all her myriad complexities, combining interview clips with the author and readings by actress Patricia Clarkson of Sontag's letters and written works. Instead of beginning in childhood, Kates skips ahead to Sontag's high school years, during which she wrote poetry and studied philosophy. Judith Sontag Cohen remembers that classmates teased her older sister over their Jewish surname, Rosenblatt, until their widowed mother remarried and the family name changed. Sontag graduated at 15 and moved on to Berkeley. By 1951, she was married and had a child, but remained as committed to writing as ever. When she received a fellowship to study at Oxford, Sontag left her son, David, with her in-laws. After a year abroad, where she had an affair with a woman, Sontag returned to the States and got a divorce. She went on to teach at Columbia and launched her career as a novelist. Although her first book was met with tepid reviews, her essay "Notes on ‘Camp'” made her a literary celebrity. Lesbians were drawn to Sontag's work, but also found her refusal to come out disappointing, although Sontag had no problem aligning herself with the feminist movement. Over the years, she would have relationships with famous figures, including artist Jasper Johns and actress Nicole Stéphane. She would also survive her first brush with cancer, inspiring her best-known book, Illness as Metaphor. Until her death in 2004, Sontag would concentrate on film directing, fiction writing, and her relationship with photographer Annie Leibovitz. A solid portrait of a legendary figure in the literary world, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)