Perplexed by some of the unfavorable reviews of this text. As someone 1.) who wasn't around during Sontag's heyday but 2.) who has previously read Nunez's and Rieff's biographies (memoirs?) on Sontag as well as Google Books snippets of The Making of An Icon, I closed this book feeling as though I had a better sense of Sontag's work in addition to her character.

I appreciated the thorough overview of her childhood and essay collections. I feel as though some of the criticisms about hyperbole in previous reviews have more to do with this book being translated from German than the author's intent: Schrieber clearly did his homework with this text. One thing I would like clarification about, however, is whether or not Terry Castle and Sontag were merely colleagues or companions (this biography says both, but Castle has never said they were partners). I also would have appreciated more attention to Sontag's year of college California.