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caitlinxmartin 's review for:
Sophie's Choice
by William Styron
I read this (sort of) once before, in 1985 after seeing the movie. I remember I was traveling on a plane from New Mexico (where I lived at the time) to Seattle (to visit family). I had the book on the plane & had been reading it, but having a hard time with it & when I left the plane I left the book without finishing it. Leaving a book behind is extremely unusual for me - I never go anywhere without a book & I just about always finish just about everything. I decided that I just wasn't meant to read this book if I'd left it behind. I was 22. I had equal trouble with [b:Lie Down in Darkness|180630|Lie Down in Darkness|William Styron|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172493018s/180630.jpg|14245] - just couldn't get through it. I loved his non-fiction piece about depression - [b:Darkness Visible A Memoir of Madness|249042|Darkness Visible A Memoir of Madness|William Styron|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173125109s/249042.jpg|1258333] - I thought it was one of the truest pieces of writing about depression that I had ever read. I figured eventually I'd get back to his fiction.
I picked up [b:Sophie's Choice|228560|Sophie's Choice|William Styron|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172888618s/228560.jpg|2912834] again as part of a reading challenge - to read some American prize winning books & compare them. I'm glad I did. Styron can write & he can tell a story - painful though it may be. I loved the craft of this book, the interplay of language & the brick-by-brick-by-word-by-word deftness of his creations - Stingo, Sophie, & Nathan & long ago far away Brooklyn.
As much a meditation on his younger days as a fledgling writer as it is a Holocaust story, this novel is also a Southerner's rumination on what it means to be Southern, to be liberal, to have lived through the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis & to see similar horrors perpetrated in your home (see also, slavery & lynchings). There are aspects of this book that remind me very clearly of [b:North Toward Home|526872|North Toward Home|Willie Morris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175545298s/526872.jpg|514664] - Willie Morris' wonderful memoir about being a Southerner among Northern intellectuals. Styron beautifully captures Stingo's naivete & self-conscious youth as he struggles with his first novel.
Equally well-drawn are the doomed Nathan & Sophie - their mutual histories of madness & despair intertwined in fatal & beautiful ways. It is worth remembering that more than Europe's Jews were caught up in the Nazi insanity - Sophie's story is just one of many.
This is a difficult, painful & ultimately worthwhile novel. Read it - you won't regret it.
I picked up [b:Sophie's Choice|228560|Sophie's Choice|William Styron|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172888618s/228560.jpg|2912834] again as part of a reading challenge - to read some American prize winning books & compare them. I'm glad I did. Styron can write & he can tell a story - painful though it may be. I loved the craft of this book, the interplay of language & the brick-by-brick-by-word-by-word deftness of his creations - Stingo, Sophie, & Nathan & long ago far away Brooklyn.
As much a meditation on his younger days as a fledgling writer as it is a Holocaust story, this novel is also a Southerner's rumination on what it means to be Southern, to be liberal, to have lived through the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis & to see similar horrors perpetrated in your home (see also, slavery & lynchings). There are aspects of this book that remind me very clearly of [b:North Toward Home|526872|North Toward Home|Willie Morris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175545298s/526872.jpg|514664] - Willie Morris' wonderful memoir about being a Southerner among Northern intellectuals. Styron beautifully captures Stingo's naivete & self-conscious youth as he struggles with his first novel.
Equally well-drawn are the doomed Nathan & Sophie - their mutual histories of madness & despair intertwined in fatal & beautiful ways. It is worth remembering that more than Europe's Jews were caught up in the Nazi insanity - Sophie's story is just one of many.
This is a difficult, painful & ultimately worthwhile novel. Read it - you won't regret it.