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tania_kliphuis 's review for:
Sophie's Choice
by William Styron
Forgive me for my blasphemy because I do realise that this book is a classic - but I didn't love it. When I said that to a friend, she responded with "It's long, but didn't you find it powerful?". Well, yes and no.
I read this book in two parts. I started off with it at the beginning of the year. I'm not sure why, it probably had something to do with the fact that it is on Top 100 lists or something. The first part of the book centres around Stingo's new found friendship with Sophie and Nathan at the 'Pink Palace' - the building where they live in rented rooms. Stingo, an aspiring writer, falls head-over-heels for this erratic couple and their lives become intertwined. Even at that point, it is very clear that:
1. No one could ever describe Nathan as stable, and
2. Sophie has clearly had a very, very rough time of it during WWII (she is a Polish immigrant).
At that stage, I got bored and left it. I picked it up again about a week ago, on a mission to finally finish the damn thing. It got a bit more interesting at that point, as the truth about Sophie's experiences at Auschwitz started coming to light.
Styron has a good sense of writing the way that people tell other people stories. The book seems to be written from Stingo's memory and one almost gets a sense of an old man who has had a decent life, telling this last final piece of his life to his grandchildren. It sounded like this to me after a while: "we were here, it was cold, because it was cold I had a blanket, and then I checked on the kids, and then she said we would get visitors, and then the visitors arrived, etc." Realistic, but tedious after a while. If Stingo started off his tale to his grandkids with "It's a long story...", he would not have been kidding.
The characters were also well-developed (if slightly sex-mad). For example, Stingo is a racist. He has been raised that way. As with most people who have prejudiced views, it is almost forgotten in normal conversation until they come out with a stinker of a racist joke and expect you to giggle along, not realising that you may not share their views. I found this particular characteristic interesting (and it struck me toward the end of the book when Stingo tells a very bad-taste joke about Mississippi virgins).
Nonetheless, Sophie's time at Auschwitz (well, the bits she described anyway) were interesting and I did get the sense that this is a woman who could tolerate hell because of what she has been through on Earth (to paraphrase Stingo).
There are three things that this book left me with:
1. Oddly, the brief encounter that Sophie has with Hoss's daughter Emmi, age eleven. I found myself wondering if there are any other quality books about or by the children of the concentration camp kommandants (apart from [b:The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas|39999|The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas|John Boyne|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320507879s/39999.jpg|1148702], which I have read). What did they see? Did they know? Surely it messed them up for life?
2. Why Jan? This was a huge question mark for me, until I realised that Sophie probably thought that he was stronger and could handle it better (her daughter was comforted earlier by her brother).
3. Going into this book, I had an idea of what the "choice" was - but once I had finished it, I realised that Sophie's Choice was really about Nathan and Stingo. How differently would her life have turned out if she had chosen Stingo?
I'm glad that I've read this book, and I can see why it has literary fans. This is the kind of book that I would have enjoyed picking apart during my English Lit degree years ago. However, for fun, it just didn't grab me the way I like to be grabbed by a book.
I read this book in two parts. I started off with it at the beginning of the year. I'm not sure why, it probably had something to do with the fact that it is on Top 100 lists or something. The first part of the book centres around Stingo's new found friendship with Sophie and Nathan at the 'Pink Palace' - the building where they live in rented rooms. Stingo, an aspiring writer, falls head-over-heels for this erratic couple and their lives become intertwined. Even at that point, it is very clear that:
1. No one could ever describe Nathan as stable, and
2. Sophie has clearly had a very, very rough time of it during WWII (she is a Polish immigrant).
At that stage, I got bored and left it. I picked it up again about a week ago, on a mission to finally finish the damn thing. It got a bit more interesting at that point, as the truth about Sophie's experiences at Auschwitz started coming to light.
Styron has a good sense of writing the way that people tell other people stories. The book seems to be written from Stingo's memory and one almost gets a sense of an old man who has had a decent life, telling this last final piece of his life to his grandchildren. It sounded like this to me after a while: "we were here, it was cold, because it was cold I had a blanket, and then I checked on the kids, and then she said we would get visitors, and then the visitors arrived, etc." Realistic, but tedious after a while. If Stingo started off his tale to his grandkids with "It's a long story...", he would not have been kidding.
The characters were also well-developed (if slightly sex-mad). For example, Stingo is a racist. He has been raised that way. As with most people who have prejudiced views, it is almost forgotten in normal conversation until they come out with a stinker of a racist joke and expect you to giggle along, not realising that you may not share their views. I found this particular characteristic interesting (and it struck me toward the end of the book when Stingo tells a very bad-taste joke about Mississippi virgins).
Nonetheless, Sophie's time at Auschwitz (well, the bits she described anyway) were interesting and I did get the sense that this is a woman who could tolerate hell because of what she has been through on Earth (to paraphrase Stingo).
There are three things that this book left me with:
1. Oddly, the brief encounter that Sophie has with Hoss's daughter Emmi, age eleven. I found myself wondering if there are any other quality books about or by the children of the concentration camp kommandants (apart from [b:The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas|39999|The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas|John Boyne|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320507879s/39999.jpg|1148702], which I have read). What did they see? Did they know? Surely it messed them up for life?
2. Why Jan? This was a huge question mark for me, until I realised that Sophie probably thought that he was stronger and could handle it better (her daughter was comforted earlier by her brother).
3. Going into this book, I had an idea of what the "choice" was - but once I had finished it, I realised that Sophie's Choice was really about Nathan and Stingo. How differently would her life have turned out if she had chosen Stingo?
I'm glad that I've read this book, and I can see why it has literary fans. This is the kind of book that I would have enjoyed picking apart during my English Lit degree years ago. However, for fun, it just didn't grab me the way I like to be grabbed by a book.