In America is Susan Sontag's second novel. She writes about the life of actress Maryna Zalezowska from an interpretive perspective, imagining what drives a person to fail so thoroughly and then to succeed so well. As if her failures were necessary for the success, Maryna pours herself into her ideas, however wrong, even if she understands that she's wrong. For example, she abandons her acting career to move to America and establish a commune with other Polish ex-pats, but she believes this alternative to her dream of acting will satisfy. The illusion is quickly shattered and Maryna abandons the commune to pursue acting once more, this time becoming wildly successful.
After surviving typhoid fever, Maryna convinces her closest friends and family that the Russian occupation of Poland is what's keeping them all low. She wants to see them succeed, so she argues that they should all move to America and start a farming community together. As a testament to her importance in her community, they all agree and pool their resources to make it to America. Eventually the dream falls apart as people become disillusioned by how challenging this goal really is. They get into conflicts because not everyone works the same amount or not everyone has a good attitude, etc. For her part, Maryna moves to San Francisco and takes up acting again and becomes the most famous and wealthy of any before her.
Maryna, based upon her real-life counterpart, is an example of sheer willpower. Although she does not base her decisions always upon love or excellence, she does devote herself to a goal. She believes in herself to a fault, accepting no excuses for failure after her lesson at the farm. Maryna learns through the commune that her exterior circumstances actually weren't hindering her success; she was. In response, she leaves the community and sets her mind to mastery of acting. And this time she is successful because she doesn't allow herself to get in her own way.
