In America

In America, Susan Sontag’s follow-up to the more inviting The Volcano Lover, is a tense, terse saga about a group of Polish immigrants who form a utopian community near a Southern California town. The opening scene — in which Sontag (who’s a character in the book herself) assumes the role of a rather vulnerable moralist tentatively observing, questioning, and feeling alienated at a party — announces her epistemological concerns. As usual, Sontag has crafted a brainy, meticulous work, but this time it utterly fails to compel. C+