Sophies Choice (Paperback)

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Review
More than once in this smugly autobiographical novel, Styron pouts about how his last book, The Confessions of Nat Turner, drew accusations of exploitation, accusations that "I had turned to my own profit and advantage the miseries of slavery." And Sophie's Choice will probably draw similar accusations about Styron's use of the Holocaust: his new novel often seems to be a strong but skin-deep psychosexual melodrama that's been artificially heaped with import by making one of the characters - Sophie - a concentration-camp survivor. Her full name is Sophie Zawistowska, and she's the only other non-Jewish tenant in the Flatbush boarding house where narrator "Stingo," the young Styron, comes to attempt his first novel in 1947 after a brief nightmare as a reader at McGraw-Hill. Virtually virginal Stingo, of course, lusts like crazy after gorgeously 30-ish Sophie, but she is noisily, hotly in love with Nathan Landau, the brilliant, erratic biologist who nursed immigrant Sophie back to health after meeting her in the library. Soon Nathan, Sophie, and Stingo are a bouncy threesome, smiling together through Coney Island picnics or suffering together whenever Nathan has one of his irrational, jealous, abusive fits. And Sophie begins to reveal to Stingo, layer by layer, her guilty secrets: how she was both victim and accomplice at Auschwitz, playing the role of anti-Semite to ingratiate herself with officials; how she was willing to use her body to gain advantages; how she was forced to choose which of her two young children would die in the gas chamber. These reminiscences give Styron an opportunity to expound on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, and to give the novel an ostensible unity: "Someday I will write about Sophie's life and death, and thereby help demonstrate how absolute evil is never extinguished from the worM." But Sophie's death - a suicide pact with Nathan (who's soon exposed as a certifiable lunatic) after a brief but elaborate roll in the hay with Stingo - is only tenuously linked to the evil of Auschwitz; it's more in the good old Southern-gothic tradition. And when Styron tells us that Stingo has learned through Sophie about "death, and pain, and loss, and the appalling enigma of human existence," the pomposity seems unsupported, unearned by Stingo/Styron. Lesser problems too: the clumsy narrative shifts in the Auschwitz flashbacks, the impossibly ornate dialogue, the self-dramatizing, the diminishing returns of Styron's "encyclopedic ability to run on and on about a subject." Still, with all that said, Styron is a born writer, and when he's just storytelling - and not playing the dubious role of Great American Writer and Thinker - there's enough detailed, vigorous, sheer readability here to sustain even some of those readers bound to be turned off by the sticky contrivances and hollow pretentions. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Daily Express
‘A compassionate insight into the greatest evil of our century’ --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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9 Reviews 5 star:  (6) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars extremely moving, powerful story that packs a punch., 9 Mar 2001 By A Customer This review is from: Sophie's Choice (Picador Books) (Hardcover) I throughly enjoyed the film and decided to read the book and it is even better, it is an extremely powerful story centering on three characters, Stingo the narrator, Sophie a Polish emigrant and Nathan, her Jewish lover. The story is set in Brooklyn, New York in 1947 and concerns the relationship between the three who are neighbours in the same boarding house. Initially all is well and they become the best of friends but all is not what it appears. It transpires that Sophie is a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp although she is Polish. She is haunted by her past and by all the friends and family who did not survive the war. As the story continues it takes us back to pre-war Europe in flashback. It also explores her relationship with Nathan, a brilliant but unstable character with his own demons. Without giving too much away the story has a heartbreaking twist to it and a box of tissues might come in handy. For me, what gave it immediacy and such a haunting quality is that Sophie is apparently based on someone who the author actually knew and the reader is left asking how much of it is fiction? Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   18 of 23 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars The most moving book I have ever read, 31 Jan 2001 By A Customer This review is from: Sophie's Choice (Vintage classics) (Paperback) Please, Please, Please read this book. It is an amazing account of the lives of three people drawn together in New York in 1947. This book should be read by both young and old. Through it's powerful and spell binding narrative it chronicals in particular the life of Sophie,a Polish survivor of Auschwitz and builds up to the gut renshing and heart breaking finale - her choice. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   6 of 8 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A deeply uncomfortable read, 8 Aug 2005 By  Mrs. L. E. Jones "mrs jones" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Sophie's Choice (Vintage Classics) (Paperback) Although "Sophie's Choice" has been listed as a classic, I found this book to be a very uncomfortable and unsettling read. Through a series of lies and contructed truths, Sophie relates her wartime experiences in Poland leading up until the point where she is liberated from Auschwitz and her attempts to rebuild her life in New York. However, as Sophie is sexually objectified by the narrator's numerous fantasties and verbally and physically abused by her lover and "saviour" Nathan, I found the post war world created by Styron even more disturbing than the past. However, the blunt and honest way in which the post war psyche is explored through 3 very different characters is facinating. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 9 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Sophie's Choice This is an amazing book, I don't know why I didn't discover it earlier. Despite its size it makes for an enjoyable read and it doesn't take a very long time to find yourself... Read more Published 4 months ago by I. Lolossidis 1.0 out of 5 stars Boring This has to be one of the most boring books I've ever read. The characters are unbelievable, there are too many unnecessary details, and the ending is shamelessly predictable... Read more Published 8 months ago by David Kelly 3.0 out of 5 stars disappointing I was soundly disappointed by this book. The concept is great. The execution, though, is sorely lacking. Read more Published on 7 Oct 2003 by Dog in a Flat Cap 5.0 out of 5 stars You have to read this book! This book is absolutely brilliant and let down only by the author's tendency to ramble. Once you've read it, though, everything falls into place and Styron leaves you with a... Read more Published on 21 April 2001 5.0 out of 5 stars Simply, the best novel of the twentieth century. Styron weaves tragedy and comedy in a delicously complex and counterpointed narrative. The writing is lyrical - pick up the book and starting reading at any page! Published on 27 Nov 2000 5.0 out of 5 stars I think that this book was excellent!!! I read Sophie's Choice for a book report for my level one 10th grade English class this year. We were given a list of books to choose from. Read more Published on 28 Jan 1999 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 9 customer reviews...

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