Debriefing collects all of Susan Sontag’s shorter fiction, a form she turned to intermittently throughout her writing life. The book ranges from allegory to parable to autobiography and shows her wrestling with problems not assimilable to the essay, her more customary mode. Here she catches fragments of life on the fly, dramatizes her private griefs and fears, lets characters take her where they will.

Pilgrimage -- Project for a trip to China -- American spirits -- The letter scene -- The dummy -- Unguided tour -- Old complaints revisited -- Baby -- Doctor Jekyll -- Debriefing -- The way we live now.