Sophie's Choice 
asked by steelers on November 18, 2006 8:43 PM
Three stories are told: a young Southerner wants to become a writer; a turbulent love-hate affair between a brilliant Jew and a beautiful Polish woman; and of an awful wound in that woman's past--one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction.
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I first read this book several years ago. It was so powerful that it has always stayed with me. Therefore, many years later, I recently read it again. I was just as mesmorized by the story of Sophie, Nathan, and Stingo as I was years ago. Some other Amazon reviewers said it was too long, but I beg to differ. A great book can't be too long. A great book is so enjoyable to read that the reader does not want it to end; just the way I feel about Sophie's Choice. I am sure I will read it again someday.
As a mother, I can relate to the "choice" which Sophie was forced to make; a choice which subsequently destroyed her. It wasn't that had Sophie chosen otherwise she would have been able to accept the outcome. Her undoing was in having to choose at all.
Tragic, sad, powerful. I loved it.
As a mother, I can relate to the "choice" which Sophie was forced to make; a choice which subsequently destroyed her. It wasn't that had Sophie chosen otherwise she would have been able to accept the outcome. Her undoing was in having to choose at all.
Tragic, sad, powerful. I loved it.
reviewed by advisor on November 26, 2006 3:42 AM
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In Sophie's Choice, William Styron does a masterful job of telling a horrific tale in bearable way. Sophie is a Polish Christian who survived 18 months in Auschwitz before the camp was liberated by the Allies. Of course her story is heartbreaking. But Styron unfolds the tale in a way that allows the reader to take it all in without being crushed by the sadness of it.
First, instead of marching out the story of Sophie's capture and imprisonment in chronological order, Styron layers it on, each layer building on the next. When the 22-year-old narrator, Stingo, a Southerner who moved to Brooklyn to write novels, first meets Sophie in the summer of 1947, she gives him only the briefest of versions of her experience in the war. It is only as they grow closer as friends that Sophie, through a series of drunken encounters, provides more details to Stingo, each time admitting that she had lied to him before in earlier versions of her tale.
By presenting the horrifying particulars bit by bit, Styron seems mindful of the warning, and even quotes Stalin as saying, that a "single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." The reader sees the tragedy of Sophie's experience because, by offering just a little at a time, Styron allows the reader to digest her story, along with a great deal of information about the Holocaust in general. If Styron had presented her story in full from the beginning, the awfulness would be numbing.
Also, Styron balances Sophie's tragic past with her tragic present in Brooklyn. In love with Nathan, a brilliant drug addict subject to violent fits of jealousy, Sophie has no chance of building a "normal" life in America. But, given her experiences in the concentration camp, it is impossible to imagine how she could. Rather than present an unbelievable fairy tale of survival, Styron uses the tortured relationship between Nathan and Sophie as the catalyst for her revelations to Stingo, as well as the vehicle of her ultimate, and well-foreshadowed, undoing.
Finally, for all its sadness, there is plenty of humor in the book. Some of Stingo's failed romantic adventures are downright funny, as are his self-deprecating descriptions of his writing efforts. Again, without these side stories offering a respite from the main narrative, Sophie's story would be unbearable.
Sophie's Choice is going in my Top 10 favorite novels of all times. I don't know yet what it is bumping off the list, but it is definitely going on.
First, instead of marching out the story of Sophie's capture and imprisonment in chronological order, Styron layers it on, each layer building on the next. When the 22-year-old narrator, Stingo, a Southerner who moved to Brooklyn to write novels, first meets Sophie in the summer of 1947, she gives him only the briefest of versions of her experience in the war. It is only as they grow closer as friends that Sophie, through a series of drunken encounters, provides more details to Stingo, each time admitting that she had lied to him before in earlier versions of her tale.
By presenting the horrifying particulars bit by bit, Styron seems mindful of the warning, and even quotes Stalin as saying, that a "single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." The reader sees the tragedy of Sophie's experience because, by offering just a little at a time, Styron allows the reader to digest her story, along with a great deal of information about the Holocaust in general. If Styron had presented her story in full from the beginning, the awfulness would be numbing.
Also, Styron balances Sophie's tragic past with her tragic present in Brooklyn. In love with Nathan, a brilliant drug addict subject to violent fits of jealousy, Sophie has no chance of building a "normal" life in America. But, given her experiences in the concentration camp, it is impossible to imagine how she could. Rather than present an unbelievable fairy tale of survival, Styron uses the tortured relationship between Nathan and Sophie as the catalyst for her revelations to Stingo, as well as the vehicle of her ultimate, and well-foreshadowed, undoing.
Finally, for all its sadness, there is plenty of humor in the book. Some of Stingo's failed romantic adventures are downright funny, as are his self-deprecating descriptions of his writing efforts. Again, without these side stories offering a respite from the main narrative, Sophie's story would be unbearable.
Sophie's Choice is going in my Top 10 favorite novels of all times. I don't know yet what it is bumping off the list, but it is definitely going on.
reviewed by anexpert on November 27, 2006 1:12 PM
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A grim story yet wonderfully told...you'll have to go far to find anything that can compete with Stryon's prose.
reviewed by vegaswinner on November 29, 2006 7:40 AM
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This is by no means an easy or short book, and it's very difficult to write a review of the book without thinking of the movie--which is excellent by the way. Suffice it to say that no book has ever affected me to the extent that "Sophie's Choice" has, with the possibly exception of McCrae's "Dogwood" which has an even more shocking secret. Southern authors--they really know how to keep your attention. But "Choice" is a book that everyone MUST read at one time in their life. There's so much more in it than is shown in the movie, and the writing is first-rate.
reviewed by crafty1 on November 29, 2006 9:25 AM
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William Styron wrote a bestseller and it is very easy to see, why "Sophie's Choice" became one - it has all the characteristics of the bestseller: an important subject, emotional rendering, acute descriptions and many surprises along the way. It recalls the story of three housemates in Brooklyn: a young, aspiring writer, Stingo (alter ego of Styron, presumably, since he is the narrator), Sophie Zawistowska, the Polish woman who escaped death in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the Jewish maniacal lover of Sophia, Natan. Many secrets (mostly Sophie's, but ultimately of all the protagonists) are revealed gradually and the tension is punctuated by several dramatic events.
The book is long, but very captivating and therefore it is a fast read. I was very moved by the story, but not only by Sophie's trauma, but also (and mainly) by the feelings in the triangle. I think the characters' personalities are very well depicted and they come alive on the pages of this novel (as well as the other, minor characters, which are very colorful too, like Sophie's father or even the landlady). The writing is very good, and having said that, I must say I am surprised by opinions, that the writing is mundane and only the topic of the WWII victim is interesting and moving in this book. For me it is just the opposite - it is a very good novel, but for the accuracy or relations from concentration camps, or descriptions of the death camps survivors, it is better to get to know other books (Styron does actually a good job enumerating some examples and authors, like Tadeusz Borowski, whom I recommend). It is a novel and one should not forget that.
For me it was triply interesting because of my Polish background and interest both in immigrant culture (Brooklyn) and American South, which is for me equally mysterious as Poland before and under the Nazi occupation for the American reader. So if you think that Styron shows the South or New York in a superficial manner, you can imagine that the Polish part is done in a similar style (although obviously the author has researched the subject, there are some strangely vague statements, like the mention of the ghetto in Cracow - the Jews lived in their quarter in Kazimierz, but I am not sure if it could be called a ghetto as we understand the word now). The reader is left until almost the end of the book what is meant by the title and when the answer arrives, it is already a bit blurred by all the other events in the narrative.
In my opinion, it is a very good novel, but not completely perfect, maybe because it seems to be an attempt to achieve too many goals (both in form and in content).
The book is long, but very captivating and therefore it is a fast read. I was very moved by the story, but not only by Sophie's trauma, but also (and mainly) by the feelings in the triangle. I think the characters' personalities are very well depicted and they come alive on the pages of this novel (as well as the other, minor characters, which are very colorful too, like Sophie's father or even the landlady). The writing is very good, and having said that, I must say I am surprised by opinions, that the writing is mundane and only the topic of the WWII victim is interesting and moving in this book. For me it is just the opposite - it is a very good novel, but for the accuracy or relations from concentration camps, or descriptions of the death camps survivors, it is better to get to know other books (Styron does actually a good job enumerating some examples and authors, like Tadeusz Borowski, whom I recommend). It is a novel and one should not forget that.
For me it was triply interesting because of my Polish background and interest both in immigrant culture (Brooklyn) and American South, which is for me equally mysterious as Poland before and under the Nazi occupation for the American reader. So if you think that Styron shows the South or New York in a superficial manner, you can imagine that the Polish part is done in a similar style (although obviously the author has researched the subject, there are some strangely vague statements, like the mention of the ghetto in Cracow - the Jews lived in their quarter in Kazimierz, but I am not sure if it could be called a ghetto as we understand the word now). The reader is left until almost the end of the book what is meant by the title and when the answer arrives, it is already a bit blurred by all the other events in the narrative.
In my opinion, it is a very good novel, but not completely perfect, maybe because it seems to be an attempt to achieve too many goals (both in form and in content).
reviewed by runningscared on November 29, 2006 6:42 PM