In America
by Susan Sontag
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780312273200 |
Only 3 left in stock at $7.95!
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
In America is a kaleidoscopic portrait of America on the cusp of modernity. As she did in her enormously popular novel The Volcano Lover, Susan Sontag casts a story located in the past in a fresh, provocative light to create a fictional world full of contemporary resonance. In 1876 a group of Poles led by Maryna Zalezowska, Poland's greatest actress, emigrate to the United States and travel to California to found a "utopian commune." When the commune fails, Maryna stays, learns English, and—as Marina Zalenska—forges a new, even more triumphant career on the American stage, becoming a diva on par with Sara Bernhardt. In America is about many things: a woman's search for self-transformation; the fate of idealism; a life in the theater; the many varieties of love; and, not least of all, stories and storytelling itself. Operatic in the scope and intensity of the emotions it depicts, richly detailed and visionary in its account of America, and peopled with unforgettable characters.
Review:
"This, presumably, is what Horace meant when he asked, rhetorically, "do good poems come by nature, or by art?" The same question might be asked of good novels, such as this one. One suspects that Sontag wants us to ask such a question, wants us to use the dilemma of theater's mimesis as a way of reflecting on the dilemma of the historical novel's relation to reality. For her book is both Romantically expressive and artfully sly; it is unconscious and self-conscious in equal measure." James Woods, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review here)
Synopsis:
In 1876, a group of Poles led by Maryna Zalezowska, Poland's greatest actress, travels to California to found a "utopian" commune. "In America" is a big, juicy, surprising book about a woman's search for self-transformation, about the fate of idealism, and about the world of the theater.
About the Author
Susan Sontag is the author of four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover and In America; I, Etcetera, a collection of stories; several plays; and five works of nonfiction, among them Illness as a Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. She lives in New York City. In 2001 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work.
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Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780312273200
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Picador USA
- Location:
- New York, N.Y
- Subject:
- Literary
- Subject:
- Historical
- Subject:
- California
- Subject:
- Historical - General
- Subject:
- Historical fiction
- Subject:
- Actresses
- Subject:
- Utopias
- Subject:
- Polish americans
- Copyright:
- 2000
- Edition Number:
- 1st Picador USA ed.
- Edition Description:
- First
- Series Volume:
- no. 52
- Publication Date:
- May 2001
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 400
- Dimensions:
- 8.38x5.44x1.07 in. .81 lbs.











