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A review by doritobabe
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
4.0
(One of my least eloquent reviews ever.)
I do not know if I really liked this book. Now, before you hit me, let me explain.
These are things I did like: the writing, the complex narrative, her choice and how devastating it was, the historical accuracy and information.
The things I did not like are as follows: Stingo’s obsessive sexual nature and rants that rambled for pages talking about breasts, etc etc. I did not like the ending after we found out her choice, not the double suicide—that was kind of a given from the beginning of the text—but the rambling about the funeral and Stingo’s drunken philosophizing. I have been thinking about it and now I understand WHY the author did it, especially because he mentioned it in passing in the text. All of the bits that I did not like are put into the text to probably promote the idea that people are more concerned about themselves personally/to highlight the ignorance that many people (namely Americans and Canadians) had during the time. Remember the part of the book where Stingo is like: “I was eating a banana the day that Sophie entered the camp”? And then he explains the ignorance of the situation until the end of the war? Yah, like that. But, the author/Stingo never really got passed that I feel. So maybe Styron was making a point that even though Stingo felt pain, sympathy or remorse for Sophie (if you have ever noticed, it was only SPECIFICALLY HER and the people she told him about –this he mentions in the text) and not the others who suffered (as they were still virtually unknowns), he was still struggling with personal conceit and vanity. That maybe, yah it is all sad but really, I am still more concerned with my life and what will happen to it. Unfortunately, Stingo did not gain a sense of mortality from his interactions.
Also, I think Sophie was kind of whiny and pathetic most of the time—I found her REALLY annoying. I think the other thing I didn't like about the text itself was that it kept feeling like the author would gain random spurts of inspiration here and there. Like, he would be writing and say: LETS MAKE NATHAN PSYCHO… LETS MAKE SOPHIE HAVE A KID… AND ANOTHER KID… AND BE FRIENDS WITH REBELS… very chaotic, like he (Styron) didn't even know what he wanted to write until he got there. What is that called again? Lack of omniscience? In spite of all that I disliked about this novel, I think that is why I liked it, too. That it was supposed to leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth, to prove a point.
I do not know if I really liked this book. Now, before you hit me, let me explain.
These are things I did like: the writing, the complex narrative, her choice and how devastating it was, the historical accuracy and information.
The things I did not like are as follows: Stingo’s obsessive sexual nature and rants that rambled for pages talking about breasts, etc etc. I did not like the ending after we found out her choice, not the double suicide—that was kind of a given from the beginning of the text—but the rambling about the funeral and Stingo’s drunken philosophizing. I have been thinking about it and now I understand WHY the author did it, especially because he mentioned it in passing in the text. All of the bits that I did not like are put into the text to probably promote the idea that people are more concerned about themselves personally/to highlight the ignorance that many people (namely Americans and Canadians) had during the time. Remember the part of the book where Stingo is like: “I was eating a banana the day that Sophie entered the camp”? And then he explains the ignorance of the situation until the end of the war? Yah, like that. But, the author/Stingo never really got passed that I feel. So maybe Styron was making a point that even though Stingo felt pain, sympathy or remorse for Sophie (if you have ever noticed, it was only SPECIFICALLY HER and the people she told him about –this he mentions in the text) and not the others who suffered (as they were still virtually unknowns), he was still struggling with personal conceit and vanity. That maybe, yah it is all sad but really, I am still more concerned with my life and what will happen to it. Unfortunately, Stingo did not gain a sense of mortality from his interactions.
Also, I think Sophie was kind of whiny and pathetic most of the time—I found her REALLY annoying. I think the other thing I didn't like about the text itself was that it kept feeling like the author would gain random spurts of inspiration here and there. Like, he would be writing and say: LETS MAKE NATHAN PSYCHO… LETS MAKE SOPHIE HAVE A KID… AND ANOTHER KID… AND BE FRIENDS WITH REBELS… very chaotic, like he (Styron) didn't even know what he wanted to write until he got there. What is that called again? Lack of omniscience? In spite of all that I disliked about this novel, I think that is why I liked it, too. That it was supposed to leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth, to prove a point.