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michelleh312 's review for:
Sophie's Choice
by William Styron
My opinion:
Sophie's story is so incredibly impressive and moving. However, this book tries to tell other stories as well, which, all in all, was too distracting and uninteresting for me. I could have done with a little less forays into Stingo's past, for example, and definitely without all the sex all the time. Some functional sex, sure, but this felt to be more sex for the sake of it, bordering on pornography. It didn't add much to the story, I think, and could have been cut. I am also doubtful about how much of Sophie's story is the truth - not if it actually happened, but if it could have happened. The first person perspective kept me reading, constantly wondering what would come next.
Styron's choice to make Sophie a Polish woman of Catholic faith, being imprisoned in a concentration camp, has lead to many discussions and leaves me with mixed feelings.
Recommendation:
Lengthy book. Deals with many themes - the holocaust, rape, discrimination, racial issues, South vs North America - in a difficult language. Read if interested in the male mind in 1940s America, read partially if only interested in Sophie's story of surviving the Holocaust.
Warnings: very explicit scenes of sex and rape; mentions of drug-use and physical abuse.
Sophie's story is so incredibly impressive and moving. However, this book tries to tell other stories as well, which, all in all, was too distracting and uninteresting for me. I could have done with a little less forays into Stingo's past, for example, and definitely without all the sex all the time. Some functional sex, sure, but this felt to be more sex for the sake of it, bordering on pornography. It didn't add much to the story, I think, and could have been cut. I am also doubtful about how much of Sophie's story is the truth - not if it actually happened, but if it could have happened. The first person perspective kept me reading, constantly wondering what would come next.
Styron's choice to make Sophie a Polish woman of Catholic faith, being imprisoned in a concentration camp, has lead to many discussions and leaves me with mixed feelings.
Recommendation:
Lengthy book. Deals with many themes - the holocaust, rape, discrimination, racial issues, South vs North America - in a difficult language. Read if interested in the male mind in 1940s America, read partially if only interested in Sophie's story of surviving the Holocaust.
Warnings: very explicit scenes of sex and rape; mentions of drug-use and physical abuse.