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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
UUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH. Unpopular view here...but I effing hated this book. So. Much. Stingo was annoying and his narration was vapid. The writing was awful and so overdone and overdramatic. I finally began skipping pages after a while because there was so much crap that didn't really have any importance to the storylines. I finished this book only because I felt committed after making it through the first 300 pages. Honestly this book was in my top 3 most disliked books... right next to Jodi Piccolt. The best part of this book is that I am done with it and can move on to something else.
I often wonder about titles of books when they seem to have no part of the story. I mean of course the story of Sophie and the awful choice she had to make was in the book, but you had to read over 500 pages to get to it. I enjoyed this book although sometimes found the writing style a bit pretensious and difficult to follow, there were moments when I couldn't put it down. It is an important subject, the prisoners of WWII that were not jewish and the awful things they suffered while being forced to work or be at the beck and call of Nazi officers. This book gives an honest look at a different part of the war often not spoken about. I am not sure what you would say the central story is, is it about Stingo's summer meeting this facinatingly tramautized woman, is it about the war and Auschwitz and the prisoners that were not jews? is it about Sophie's choice? Perhaps all of them combined. Sophie's ultimate choice perhaps has nothing to do with her past, and instead with her present and where she chose to be, who she chose to be with and when..... This book provokes a lot of though and as the reader can find yourself led down many paths. Overall a good book, just very long and wordy in some spots and I personally feel the title really doesn't have much impact on the story in the end. I would recommend it to others, but it took me a long time to read, mostly due to time, but also because its long and detailed and at times heavy book.
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not my cup of tea. I enjoy books where I can at least somewhat like the characters. I know they're meant to be flawed but there's truly no part of me that was rooting for these people in any way or form.
Misschien ligt het aan de Nederlandse vertaling (ik lees sowieso liever Engels, maar die had ik niet voorhanden), maar ik kon er niet doorheen komen. Raar taalgebruik en manier van storytelling. Ik ben tot pagina 200 gekomen en heb de samenvatting maar online gelezen. Lijkt me een spannende rest van het boek, maar ik ga het niet lezen. Verhaal echt top, manier van schrijven echt verschrikkelijk.
Narrator was whiny, annoying, mysoginistic, and creepy. There were more chapters focused on how horny the narrator was than on Sophie herself. Even when Sophie did come up, it was mostly descriptions of her being abused or how attractive the narrator thought she was. The descriptions of domestic violence are also pretty vivid which just seems uncalled for. Barely scartched the surface of Sophie's holocaust experience even though the book was close to halfway over.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship
Sophie's Choice is a book that will be rated highly by those who love expansive prose filled with challenging vocabulary. The core plot related to Auschwitz and the awful treatment of Jews and any other non-aryan people is gruesome but told in an interesting way. This book will be rated poorly by readers who want a writer to get to the plot without meandering through superfluous nonlinear detours. I fell in the middle but he didn't lose me despite taking the scenic route. The book could have been told in 300 pages and gotten nearly all of the messages across.
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really hated this, wow. There are moments of wonderful writing, but they're overshadowed by hundreds of pages about how badly the main character wants to get his dick wet. Sophie's story is quite affecting, but again, it's overshadowed by the rest of the book.
The author was trying to draw parallels between the Holocaust and American slavery, but they were ineffectual. I think that's worth examining, but somebody else needs to do it. Anyway, points for making a book full of unlikable characters.
The author was trying to draw parallels between the Holocaust and American slavery, but they were ineffectual. I think that's worth examining, but somebody else needs to do it. Anyway, points for making a book full of unlikable characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Feelings about this are extremely mixed.
I fell completely head over heels in love during the first 100-150 pages (ish). I understand why Styron is often critiqued for ‘overwriting’, but his writing style happens to be one of my favourite kinds. At first, Stingo also felt a compelling narrator.
I think what curbed my excitement for this book and made it feel quite slow going most of the time was the narrative style. The sexual themes, while very entertaining here and there, felt a little overdone and lewd; Sophie I found I just couldn’t warm to once we quickly learned that she is a very unreliable storyteller; and I feel Sophie and Nathan’s tumultuous relationship would have been better told with a more clipped pace and with more focus, rather than us jumping back and forth from info dumps about Sophie’s past (including her time in Auschwitz) and our cast’s current problems: Nathan and Sophie’s doomed affair, Stingo’s sexual frustration, Stingo’s writing, and so on.
Sophie’s story especially was something I just really didn’t connect to at any point, sadly. The ‘retellings’ were just so haphazard and interruptive and tedious that there was little room for enjoyment. Plus, I really think this book was missing more of a deep dive into her mental state. This might be a little too demanding for its time, of course, and we do see the telltale signs of her devolvement, but I guess Sophie’s character had been given more room for growth and exploration outside of the actual events she was involved in.
Regardless, I’m glad to have read this, and I’m perhaps overemphasising the tedium here. Every character (besides Sophie, ironically) did feel very compelling, and I do appreciate the level of detail provided. If we could’ve stuck with JUST the past or JUST the present day, though, this easily could’ve been a four star book, or more. The fragmentary and unchronological retellings of Sophie’s past just made her entire story quite difficult to connect to and get immersed in.
I fell completely head over heels in love during the first 100-150 pages (ish). I understand why Styron is often critiqued for ‘overwriting’, but his writing style happens to be one of my favourite kinds. At first, Stingo also felt a compelling narrator.
I think what curbed my excitement for this book and made it feel quite slow going most of the time was the narrative style. The sexual themes, while very entertaining here and there, felt a little overdone and lewd; Sophie I found I just couldn’t warm to once we quickly learned that she is a very unreliable storyteller; and I feel Sophie and Nathan’s tumultuous relationship would have been better told with a more clipped pace and with more focus, rather than us jumping back and forth from info dumps about Sophie’s past (including her time in Auschwitz) and our cast’s current problems: Nathan and Sophie’s doomed affair, Stingo’s sexual frustration, Stingo’s writing, and so on.
Sophie’s story especially was something I just really didn’t connect to at any point, sadly. The ‘retellings’ were just so haphazard and interruptive and tedious that there was little room for enjoyment. Plus, I really think this book was missing more of a deep dive into her mental state. This might be a little too demanding for its time, of course, and we do see the telltale signs of her devolvement, but I guess Sophie’s character had been given more room for growth and exploration outside of the actual events she was involved in.
Regardless, I’m glad to have read this, and I’m perhaps overemphasising the tedium here. Every character (besides Sophie, ironically) did feel very compelling, and I do appreciate the level of detail provided. If we could’ve stuck with JUST the past or JUST the present day, though, this easily could’ve been a four star book, or more. The fragmentary and unchronological retellings of Sophie’s past just made her entire story quite difficult to connect to and get immersed in.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It is rare that I like a movie better than the book, but in this case it is true. If you want to know what Sophie's choice was, rent the movie. The book was insufferable. It got to the point where I was skimming the pages, except for the parts that actually dealt with Sophie. There is such endless prose in describing things. It's as if Styron couldn't quite pick the adjective he wanted to use so he used them all. Personally, I couldn't care less about Stingo's awakening or whatever you want to call it. This should have been titled Stingo's Self-Absorbed Story and Oh By the Way Sophie Makes a Crippling Choice. I am giving this 2 stars instead of just 1 because the parts dealing with Sophie's flashbacks were quite gripping. Unfortunately there just wasn't enough of it.