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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
Do you ever conflate your own self-hatred and entitlement over the legacy of american genocide (the american slave trade) with vitriolic, reactionary antisemitism in order to try and get laid?? Congrats, you might be Stingo! Byron accidentally wrote a southern deconstructionist banger bc the deposed aristocracy lacks Self Awareness.
I appreciate the plot. I don’t appreciate the build-up.
There also were quite some inconsistencies in the storytelling from Sofie. It felt like Styron wanted to pretend that Stingo wrote it down like Sofie told it, but then it shouldn’t have been grammatically correct. It feels like Styron didn’t want to choose between having a character tell a story inside the story, and him writing it down how he wanted to write it. He wanted both the narrative and the pretty sentences, which in this case doesn’t make sense.
I really couldn’t care less about Stingo’s sexual escapades, or what he seems to think are his trials. I feel like it doesn’t add to the story at all. The book could have been 200 pages less and it would have been a way better book in my opinion.
I do appreciate the ending, it feels proper.
There also were quite some inconsistencies in the storytelling from Sofie. It felt like Styron wanted to pretend that Stingo wrote it down like Sofie told it, but then it shouldn’t have been grammatically correct. It feels like Styron didn’t want to choose between having a character tell a story inside the story, and him writing it down how he wanted to write it. He wanted both the narrative and the pretty sentences, which in this case doesn’t make sense.
I really couldn’t care less about Stingo’s sexual escapades, or what he seems to think are his trials. I feel like it doesn’t add to the story at all. The book could have been 200 pages less and it would have been a way better book in my opinion.
I do appreciate the ending, it feels proper.
I wanted to like this book but I found it to be a little boring and pretentious;as if it was trying too hard. I understood why she was with Nathan ; beaten down from the war camp, no self esteem, etc but my what a dysfunctional couple. I couldn't quite finish it but skimmed to read her choice and the ending.
My stepdad gave me this book a long time ago and I avoided reading it until just now. I figured I knew what it was about, a sad woman who had to choose which of her two children got to live during the holocaust. Personally I'm a little holocausted out and just didn't want to dig into 500+ page sack of sadness. Well I was mistaken. Because Sophie's choice takes an underlying, gut-punchingly sad holocaust theme and dips it in a vat of jizz. There's a lot fucking and coming and b-jobs and earthy-yet-briny vaginas and sleep-groping and piss-drinking and fun stuff to make the holocaust stuff even weirder. Sophie's choice is partially about fucking the pain away but also a glimpse at a much more complicated version of the typical super sad holocaust story. For one thing, Sophie was an anti-semitic Catholic. Not your typical victim in stories of the time. Anne Frank she is not. Her diary is not edited and she doesn't always inspire the pity we're supposed to have for the typical victims of the nazis. She's both fantastically and repugnantly human. There's so many layers to this book I'm not even getting into Nathan the nutjob or the MAIN character (with the worst name ever) who's internal reflections carry the bulk of the narrative. It's heavy but it swims, moves, chugs along. Left me feeling dirty and conflicted. Like a holocaust boner. It's gonna be weird to talk about it with my stepdad.
Always,
Mitchell
PS: Hetzjagd auf nazis.
Always,
Mitchell
PS: Hetzjagd auf nazis.
This book starts with our narrator Stingo miserable at a job in New York City at the beginning of summer in 1947. He’s a Southern man at 22 who’s come to the city in order to become a writer. In order to reach this goal Stingo begins working for a publishing company and living in a terrible boarding house. He quickly loses interest in this job as he’s so unhappy that he’s been unable to write. Through a stroke of luck Stingo inherits some money from his grandmother and is able to find a new place to live and relinquish this publishing job in order to spend more time writing. He moves to a mostly Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, to a boarding home called the Pink Palace. Soon after moving into this house he comes across a couple of his new housemates having a catastrophic fight in the doorway. This is his introduction to Sophie and Nathan,our other main characters. Nathan is saying some of the most horrendous things to Sophie, claiming that she’s been unfaithful. As he storms out he runs into Stingo and precedes to berate him for being from the south. Nathan then leaves and is insistent that he’ll never be back. Stingo goes to check on the crying Sophie who says she’ll be okay and at that point Stingo notices a tattoo of numbers on her arm, the mark of being in a concentration camp.
The next day Nathan comes back and apologizes profusely to Sophie and Stingo and begins a close and dear friendship with Stingo, quickly becoming like an older brother to him. Throughout the rest of the summer Stingo writes his book and learns more about Sophie and Nathan. Sophie is a non-Jewish Polish immigrant haunted from her time in the concentration camp Auschwitz from which she barely escaped with her life and sanity. She’s moved to the U.S. by herself, with no family or friends until she met Nathan. Nathan is a Jewish man born and raised in New York City who works as a biologist in a university lab. He has a lot of money and lavishes Sophie and Stingo with gifts and trips while in a good mood. From the description of the argument above you can see that he’s not always in good spirits.
Through the book Stingo learns and tells of Sophie’s life and experiences in Poland before and during the war. He also falls madly in love with her, but tries to hide that due to his respect for Nathan. Stingo spends this summer trying to finally lose his virginity as a means of escaping these feelings for Sophie. As the summer goes on this becomes more and more difficult, especially as Nathan’s dark side begins to show.
I am torn by this book. I wasn’t a big fan of Stingo or his story line, which was mostly his search for sex. His views on women were frankly offensive. Several times he tries to guilt women into having sex with him because he claims they had led him on. This tactic, thank god, doesn’t work. And then he proceeds to whine for several pages about it. But I did really enjoy Sophie and Nathan’s story lines and the method of backtracking to tell Sophie’s story. For this reason I gave the book 3 stars.
Warning: this book has graphic sex scenes, rape scenes, graphic descriptions of violence and death, descriptions of depression and self harm, descriptions of drinking and drug taking, and talk of racism and anti-semitic views.
The next day Nathan comes back and apologizes profusely to Sophie and Stingo and begins a close and dear friendship with Stingo, quickly becoming like an older brother to him. Throughout the rest of the summer Stingo writes his book and learns more about Sophie and Nathan. Sophie is a non-Jewish Polish immigrant haunted from her time in the concentration camp Auschwitz from which she barely escaped with her life and sanity. She’s moved to the U.S. by herself, with no family or friends until she met Nathan. Nathan is a Jewish man born and raised in New York City who works as a biologist in a university lab. He has a lot of money and lavishes Sophie and Stingo with gifts and trips while in a good mood. From the description of the argument above you can see that he’s not always in good spirits.
Through the book Stingo learns and tells of Sophie’s life and experiences in Poland before and during the war. He also falls madly in love with her, but tries to hide that due to his respect for Nathan. Stingo spends this summer trying to finally lose his virginity as a means of escaping these feelings for Sophie. As the summer goes on this becomes more and more difficult, especially as Nathan’s dark side begins to show.
I am torn by this book. I wasn’t a big fan of Stingo or his story line, which was mostly his search for sex. His views on women were frankly offensive. Several times he tries to guilt women into having sex with him because he claims they had led him on. This tactic, thank god, doesn’t work. And then he proceeds to whine for several pages about it. But I did really enjoy Sophie and Nathan’s story lines and the method of backtracking to tell Sophie’s story. For this reason I gave the book 3 stars.
Warning: this book has graphic sex scenes, rape scenes, graphic descriptions of violence and death, descriptions of depression and self harm, descriptions of drinking and drug taking, and talk of racism and anti-semitic views.
Read my full thoughts on this book and hundreds more over at Read.Write.Repeat.
This is one of those books that is all over the cultural zeitgeist. I'm sure you've heard of making a "Sophie's choice." I knew the term, but was unfamiliar with the story. It's a love triangle between a Holocaust survivor (Sophie), a Southern writer, and a Jewish drug addict. There was a lot more sexual content than I expected - enough to make me uncomfortable, but I did feel it served the story in most cases. Ultimately, Sophie's infamous choice did not surprise me, although it does take Styron all the way to the end of the novel to reveal it. Mostly, this book was just heartbreaking and too long.
This is one of those books that is all over the cultural zeitgeist. I'm sure you've heard of making a "Sophie's choice." I knew the term, but was unfamiliar with the story. It's a love triangle between a Holocaust survivor (Sophie), a Southern writer, and a Jewish drug addict. There was a lot more sexual content than I expected - enough to make me uncomfortable, but I did feel it served the story in most cases. Ultimately, Sophie's infamous choice did not surprise me, although it does take Styron all the way to the end of the novel to reveal it. Mostly, this book was just heartbreaking and too long.
I really wanted to like this book. It started out really good and then dragged on forever. Styron really needs to learn how to edit. I felt like he was showing off how smart he was half the time because I needed a dictionary to understand every other word. Good idea, but executed poorly. Next time, I'll just watch the movie.
"At 22, struggling to become some kind of writer, I found that the creative heat which at 18 had nearly consumed me with its gorgeous, relentless flame had flickered out to a dim pilot light registering little more than a token glow in my breast, or wherever my hungriest aspirations once resided."
"I was at that age when reading was still a passion and thus, save from a happy marriage, the best state possible in which to keep absolute loneliness at bay."
"At 22, struggling to become some kind of writer, I found that the creative heat which at 18 had nearly consumed me with its gorgeous, relentless flame had flickered out to a dim pilot light registering little more than a token glow in my breast, or wherever my hungriest aspirations once resided."
"I was at that age when reading was still a passion and thus, save from a happy marriage, the best state possible in which to keep absolute loneliness at bay."
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No