Sophie's Choice by William Styron
“This was not judgment day - only morning. Morning: excellent and fair.”
Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron, has an interesting plot and some wonderful characters. Stingo, a young Southern man who is learning to be a writer, narrates the book. Recently arrived in New York City, Stingo lands a job that he hates, leaves it, is lonely, and then becomes the intimate friend of a brilliant and beautiful couple: Sophie and Nathan. Stingo is immediately infatuated with Sophie, but he can’t compete in any way with a handsome, affluent, sophisticated Nathan. And there is Stingo’s friendship with Nathan to consider, too, so Stingo can do no more than secretly admire Sophie at the same time that he listlessly tries to lose his virginity with some unsatisfactory substitutes. We are intrigued by Sophie and Nathan, but puzzled by their obsessive, sometimes violent behavior. Both of them have exceptional abilities, but they are suffering terribly, and we don’t know why. The rest of the book is a series of revelations about Sophie and Nathan, usually focusing on Sophie, an Auschwitz survivor, and her life in Poland.
Styron’s novel is quite different from most Holocaust novels in that it depicts the reflections of a non-Jewish survivor. Sophie is interesting for so many reasons, and there were so many layers to her as a person. Some of them conflicted with each other and Styron depicted contradicting attitudes. In essence, Sophie was so human.
Sensitive readers will find parts of Sophie’s Choice difficult, almost unbearable, to read. At the same time, it is a beautifully written, tragic, love story.
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