As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980
As in Reborn (2008), the first volume in the planned Sontag journals and notebooks trilogy, Sontag’s son, David Rieff, begins the second with a strikingly candid introduction. In the full-tilt, questioning, and expressive entries that follow, Sontag suffers epically over love and heartbreak in her relationships with women and her hasty marriage and grapples with haunting memories of her wounding childhood. Angst blooms repeatedly, followed by self-chiding for her emotional turmoil and an oft-repeated refrain, “I must be strong.” Toward her son, adoration flows unstintingly, however self-sustainingly. “One thing I know: if I hadn’t had David, I would have killed myself last year.” A champion list-maker, Sontag keeps track of books, movies, resolutions, even “qualities that turn me on.” Her journals accompany her all over the world as her stature rises. She writes incisively about the many remarkable writers, dancers, and artists she meets, and she is happiest recounting time spent with Joseph Brodsky. A truly moving and illuminating chronicle of the vital inner life of an exceptionally nuanced thinker and risk-taking artist coming into her full powers. --Donna Seaman