The Benefactor: A Novel

The Benefactor Susan Sontags first book and first novel originally published in 1963 introduced a unique writer to the world. In the form of a memoir by a latter-day Candide named Hippolyte The Benefactor leads us on a kind of psychic Grand Tour in which Hippolytes violently imaginative dream life becomes indistinguishable from his surprising experiences in the real world. Sontags novel supplies a fascinating knowing acerbic portrait of a certain bohemian demimonde that flourished in France until quite recently. More important The Benefactor is a novel about ideas-especially religious ideas-unlike any other: funny acrobatic disturbing profound.