Sophie's Choice

Rating:
Summary: A Choice no one should have to make
Review: I feel Styron is a great writer in the aspect that he can write on such a horrible topic as the holocust and still make things funny and intersting This book moved me into emotions crying one minute, laughing the next. I only wish I had the time to read more of his novels.

Rating:
Summary: The Top Rank of American Literature
Review: Styron's 1979 novel crystallizes the Holocaust experience and its aftermath with tremendodus skill and devastating impact. The universal significance of the Holocaust experience is aided by his choice of a Polish Catholic protagonist, showing the wide net cast by the Nazis in their efforts to rid their empire of undesireables of all types. Styron's juxtaposition of the young writer, who posesses imagination but has little experience, with Stingo and Sophie, who have experienced things beyond the imagination, is a powerful narative device. This work, with its lyrical prose and unforgettable scenes of emotional carnage, compares favorably with the best that Amewrican writers have produced.

Rating:
Summary: The American Canon Is Incomplete Without This Novel
Review: Often compared by literary critics to Toni Morrison's 1987 Beloved, for the choices women and mothers are forced into under the most desperate of circumstances and conditions, William Styron's 1979 novel Sophie's Choice is a non-step textual tugging at the heart. In spite of the long passages replete with narrator Stingo's onanistic details (he hasn't gotten any, so the irony is, of course, that he lives in a place called the "pink palace"...hmmm...what's that a euphemism for?), this novel of a Holocaust survivor is not easily put out of one's memory. There are few books I internalize and metaphorize and carry around with me; this is one of those books. The humorous description of the McGraw/Hill publishing offices in Manhattan in the late 40s is a superbly hilarious way to open this novel. We are then introduced, at a rooming house in Brooklyn, to Sophie Z. and Nathan Landau, two of the novel's central characters. We learn that Sophie is a Catholic Pole who survived Auschwitz, but is still haunted by a "choice" she was forced to make while there. I agree with my fellow critic who states that the scene of Sophie's choice (set in the novel on April 1st, nonetheless, echoing, I would assume, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man)is so dramatically underplayed that I had to re-read it three times to make certain I didn't miss some critical nuance. Styron's choosing to portray the scene from which the novel's title comes as quietly and near the end as possible is a stroke of literary brilliance and keeps the reader page turning without end to find the answer to the question: What was the "choice"? Of course, in the course of the novel, Sophie Z. is faced with numerous choices, but only one choice matters; no, scratch that, all her choices matter, but this one choice is the most soul destructive of all; the self she fled with will ultimately be destroyed by a Brooklyn Jew. Forget the film; it damages this beloved text like any film does. William Styron's brilliance and specificity create a novel (based on a true story--in part, from Olga Legnya's Five Chimneys, which Styron discusses in the re-released 1999 afterword) that deals not only with the Holocaust and its implications for discussion and analysis (Sophie is a Catholic Pole, after all, not a Jew) but with the more mundane factors in life--like brilliance hindered by madness and insanity. A very sharp and unforgettable reading experience. I ask you to approach it with an open heart.

--dan

Rating:
Summary: A dark classic
Review: Finished this book today and I'm suffering from shell shock. This book hits hard and left this reader vulnerable--made me want to go out and buy a quart of whisky--which I didn't do. Styron has created a novel of such power, with such authority, only an imbecile could remain unmoved. It seems more real than any non-fiction book I've read. The tragedy in this book is horrendous, and definitely not for every reader. I will have to read one of his biographies to discover if Sophie was based on a real person. (I read that Meryl Streep was in the movie. She's a great actress but I do not picture her as right for the role, nor could any movie do this novel justice.) I would strongly advise against reading the rest of these reviews. A couple of them give away the climax of the book--a climax that floored me.

Rating:
Summary: Riveting
Review: 19 hours (with a two hour break) i had completed reading this book. If you haven't read the book, then don't look down or it will spoil it. It's weird but my mother passed away a couple of years ago and i was in the process of emptying out a closet when i stumbled this book. Really all i have to say is that the author william sytron has certainly done his research and narrates it with such vivid details including the subtles, idiosyncrasies and thought provoking actions that leaves the reader in a state of bewilderment. Although it probably didn't deserve a five, (try P.C for some mind blowing southern tales) it certainly worth reading.This is where i need your help BADLY, i have the 1979 edition (it's been eating me for the last hour) and there's a picture of four people in front of the pink palace. I think it's dr. blaystock, leslie lapidus but the other two im having problems with... i think it's nathan and sophie but im not sure.. it could be morris fink and mary alice (im sure its not yetta either) SOMEONE TELL ME PLEASE!

Rating:
Summary: Writing doesn't get much better than this
Review: When it comes to sheer versatility with the English language, Styron just can't be beat. Sophie's Choice is a truly moving and beautifully written story with intricate characterizations and a powerful premise. At times, the novel reads like a contemporary Shakesperean tragedy with characters who are unavoidably doomed by their haunted pasts. Unlike much other contemporary fiction, with its flowery language concealing a startling lack of emotion, Styron's novel manages to pack an emotional wallop without sacrificing literate, elegant prose. The three main characters come beautifully and memorably alive for the reader, and the story itself is one that is both engaging and enduring. One quibble: the infamous "Choice" for which the novel is named is dealt with in such a brief and understated manner toward the end of the novel that it left me slightly disappointed. Still, I'd rather an understated climax than one full of exaggerated and unrealistic hoop-la. Styron is wise enough to know that the horrible events which are the subject of his novel need no embellishment of their own.

Rating:
Summary: Flowing prose, chilling tale
Review: Possibly one of the greatest works of literature I have ever read. This book had me sucked deep inside of it before I even realized I was enjoying it. Styron's writing is beautiful, thought provoking, intense, compelling, and downright hilarious. Some of the scenes of Stingo's life told through an enthralling first person whirlwind reflection had me literally squealing with joy, and I could not wait to discover what other masterful sentences Styron was going to construct next. Not to mention his moving portrait of the relationship between these three desperate individuals. Stingo's decent into Sophie's world is one I will never forget, and Styron's style has left a lasting impression on me. I cannot possibly give a book a higher recomendation, or ever hope to read something with as much delight and horror as I read "Sophie's Choice."

Rating:
Summary: too much stingo
Review: While keeping me awake with the history of Sophie, I continually nodded off from Styron's ramblings through Stingo. I was never endeared by Stingo, nor did I ultimately care what he had to say. Unfortunately what he had to say constituted 90% of a long book.

Rating:
Summary: Styron rocks
Review: Styron is a brilliant writer. I had stopped reading novels entirely (lack of time or just pure laziness) but Styron has renewed my faith in the American novel. Perhaps misappropriately named, as the book is as much about a young man's struggle as it is "Sophie's Choice".

More than anything else, Styron conveys passion/emotion beautifully. The relationships and characters are so delicately and intricately crafted, I wonder if this is not an autobiographical account.

Rating:
Summary: A Book For The Ages
Review: I began reading this book on the final week of my wife's life. It was her all-time favorite book and luckily she lived long enough to see me start it and tell her how much I loved this book. My wife spoke to me through Sophie and made me glad that I knew and loved my wife and "knew" and "loved" Sophie.

I loved the purple language, I loved the sadness, I loved the history lesson about the Holocaust, I loved Stingo, Nathan and, of course, poor Sophie. This book finds a way to "top" any tragedy that might occur. "Sure, things are bad for you now," this book says, "but it was nothing like what happened to poor Sophie." Stingo's search for sex was hilarious, his conversations with Nathan were dead-on (the knee-jerk New York liberal vs. the populist, genteel Southern boy) and the sex scenes were astounding, erotic and vibrant.

I've read everything Styron wrote, by the way, and this is his best book. If he ever writes another novel, and I doubt he will, this makes as awesome a swan song as can be imagined.