Three stories are told: a young Southerner wants to become a writer; a turbulent love-hate affair between a brilliant Jew and a beautiful Polish woman; and of an awful wound in that woman's past--one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction.
Sophie's Choice (Open Road)
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"Students preparing research papers and students boning up for class will reach eagerly for these well-designed additions to accessible literary criticism for high school students."
About the Author
One of the great writers of the generation succeeding that of Hemingway and Faulkner, William Styron is renowned for the elegance of his prose and his powerful moral engagement. His books include Lie Down in Darkness, The Long March, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice, This Quiet Dust, and Darkness Visible. He has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, the Howells Medal, and the Edward MacDowell Medal.
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Most helpful customer reviews
By J.Jones
Format:Hardcover
I've only read one other book that was as jaw-dropping and mind blowing as this one, and that was THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD with its themes of child abuse, southernisms, and deparvity. SOPHIE'S CHOICE is equally as shocking, and even better written. One thing noteworthy about William Styron is his skill with the English language. He weaves together sentences and paragraphs that alone could convey the reader on a joyful voyage. But when you combine his beautiful prose with this sad tale, you get a near magnum opus. Having children myself, I felt the deepest sense of tragedy. It stirred those tender feelings deep inside me, feelings that I thought had been perpetually dormant. Lastly, the novel was effective at teaching a westerner like me about the long-standing antagonism between the north and south, between rebel and yankee. Highly recommended book! If you read only one William Styron book, read this one for goodness sake.
By Virgil
Format:Paperback
I made the decision to read Sophie's Choice after revisiting the Modern Library's 100 best books of the 20th century. I've found that sometimes "classics" can be technically perfect and admirable masterpieces yet not always engaging. This certainly does not pertain to William Styron's novel.
Few books have had me so riveted or emotionally drained after reading them. The saga of Sophie's story is a monumental piece of writing by Styron. Slowly but surely, he builds the story. He expertly weaves real life characters from Auschwitz into the narrative, chillingly recreating that awful scenario.
The main character, Stingo, begins to peel back layers of the truth with flashbacks to pre-war and then occupied Poland. Stark recollections from an emotionally drained Sophie bring descriptions of the terror of life in the concentration camps. From her bourgeous life to these camps and the (as one review aptly put it)unspeakable evil of the decision she was forced to make. It is a stunning moment and one that makes the awful conclusion understood.
One of the best novels I have read in years.
By Adam Shah
Format:Paperback
Sophie's Choice was possibly the most devastating book I ever read. After reading it, one can't stop remembering the tragic plot of a Nazi death camp survivor, her life in Poland and the camps and her post-war relationship with an unstable man in New York. However, the book is about much more as well. In the narrator Stingo's lyrical words, it is about a "voyage of discovery in a place as strange as Brooklyn."
The book begins with Stingo being fired/quitting a Manhattan publishing job and taking a summer off to write the great American novel in a rooming house in Brooklyn. Stingo is an innocent in life and the ways of love. In the rooming house, he meets the sensual holocaust survivor, Sophie, his upstairs neighbor and her across-the-hall neighbor and lover, the brilliant and yet haunted Nathan. It is odd that Nathan is the haunted one, because Sophie is a survivor of Auschwitz, the Polish Nazi death camp while Nathan is a pharmaceutical researcher with a beautiful lover.
Stingo immediately falls in love with Sophie, but is also impressed by Nathan who takes Stingo under his wing as his protege of sorts. Stingo spends the summer writing and trying to lose his innocence in the ways of love. The plot lines dealing with the latter are graphic and may turn some people away. But people too young to be exposed to the language probably shouldn't read this book anyway because of the explicitness of the holocaust plot.
Sophie gives clues about what happened to her in Poland during the war both inside and outside the death camp, but nothing prepares you for the actual final story she tells about her experiences. Reading that story will almost make you forget the beauty and lyricism of the rest of the book, but in looking back, you will realize that the book is an amazing combination of the beauty of life and the horror of it all twisted together in one perfect whole.
I heartily recommend this book.
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4.4 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic novel
What a book! What a movie! How could anyone NOT like anything Styron wrote, especially this masterpiece? Read more
Published on Mar 19 2007 by Billy Pilgrim
5.0 out of 5 stars
My choice
Although Styron is obviously influenced by such dubious writers as Thomas Wolfe and Faulkner, he nonetheless avoids the delusional granduer of the former and the pervasive... Read more
Published on Jan 11 2007 by G.O.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Choose this book
Although Styron is obviously influenced by such dubious writers as Thomas Wolfe and Faulkner, he nonetheless avoids the delusional granduer of the former and the pervasive... Read more
Published on Jan 6 2007 by Garrick O.
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorites
My mom recommended this book to me (having only seen the movie herself), and I thought it was wonderful. Styron tells a great story and keeps the reader interested throughout. Read more
Published on July 8 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
John Gardner compared it to Shakespeare
One of my favorite novels, one, as the years go by, to which I inevitably return, lifting the volume (a hardcover first edition) idly from my shelf and leafing through its pages,... Read more
Published on May 21 2004 by Pancho Lefty
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm blown away . . .
What a book! What a movie! How could anyone NOT like anything Styron wrote, especially this masterpiece? Read more
Published on Feb 6 2004
1.0 out of 5 stars
Where is the story?
I was recommended to read this book. I did. And I was awfully disappointed. The language was very coarse ~~ it doesn't do any justice to the English language at all. Read more
Published on Nov 13 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Truly Great Novel
It's not surprising that Sophie's Choice is considered by many to be one of the great novels of the twentieth century. Read more
Published on Feb 27 2003
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chilling
A chilling depiction of how the Holocaust's reign of terror extended far beyond life in concentration camps. Read more
Published on Dec 30 2002 by David Farber
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterfully written story of a tragic life
I made the decision to read Sophie's Choice after revisiting the Modern Library's 100 best books of the 20th century. Read more
Published on Oct 25 2002 by Virgil
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