French Literature Reviews - 2026
Benjamin Moser, Sontag
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs
Translated from American English by Cécile Roche
She was America's "last literary star". An essayist and novelist, mother and activist, a multifaceted intellectual and media icon who was alternately adored and reviled, Susan Sontag (1933–2004) spent her entire life meticulously crafting her own mythology. Her prolific body of work offers an essential interpretive key to understanding our culture, which is saturated with images and conflicts. Chronicling the upheavals of her era—from the Algerian War and the siege of Sarajevo to the Cuban Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall—she turned her razor-sharp gaze just as acutely onto her own personal life, marked by extraordinary love affairs and constant self-examination.
To construct this monumental biography, Benjamin Moser gained access to numerous previously unpublished archives and to individuals close to Sontag who had never spoken about her before (including her last partner, photographer Annie Leibovitz). This is a captivating, novelistic investigation into an extraordinary figure who, by taking full control of her destiny, helped profoundly redefine the terms of the female condition.
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An article about this book can be read on Diacritik.com:
Literary biographies often navigate the delicate boundary between public achievement and private experience, particularly when dealing with figures who actively shaped their own reception. Susan Sontag inhabited a complex intersection of letters, politics, and media visibility throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Her critical writings engaged directly with the shifting terrain of modern aesthetics and politics, addressing major historical conflicts and the proliferation of visual media. In an intellectual landscape shaped by rapid shifts in cultural authority, her essays and novels established a distinct register of analytical engagement that continues to invite scholarly and general examination.
Benjamin Moser's work draws upon extensive archival materials and personal testimonies to trace the trajectory of this prominent American writer and activist. Readers interested in twentieth-century intellectual history, cultural criticism, and the biographical context of modern American literature may find this volume relevant to their inquiries into Sontag's multifaceted legacy and her ongoing significance within contemporary critical discourse.
"Susan Sontag by Benjamin Moser: She, Etcetera", by Christine Marcandier…