Sophie's Choice

Rating:
Summary: Compelling characters.
Review: Even since hearing about the premise of the movie, the idea of a mother being forced to choose which child lived and which child died, I have wanted to read the book. I finally got around this year using it as nighttime reading and it took me about three months to finish- its a long one. I did enjoy it and the characters were so believable, but in some sense the story felt disjointed. I'm not quite sure how to put my finger on it, but it didn't "feel" like the best written book. However, this is not to say I wouldn't reccomend it, I am very glad I finally got around to reading this book!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I absolutely loved this book! I couldn't put it down! The story is so sad and in a way, after reading some reviews I agree that it is depressing, but it is so emotional and you just get so wrapped up in the characters that you just can't put it down, even if it is quite a downer in spots. Although all three major characters are slightly crazy in their own way (some more that others, i.e. Nathan) they are all just so interesting, the situations of their past and some of the things that go on in their lives are just so engrosing that you can't help but keep reading, this is particularly true with Sophie. She was such a tortured person in so many ways, the things that happened in her life and the decisions that she had to make were absolutely heartbreaking. Styron's writing is also excellent. I enjoyed some of his other novels very much, especially "Tidewater Morning." His writing is so descriptive, also with Stingo you see many similarities between him and the boy in "A Tidewater Morning." This is good because you feel like you get to really know the character. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It had so many twists in the plot that it is highly interesting reading, but it also has such strong characters that you can't help but become attached to them. One of William Styron's best!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Work of Art
Review: Wow! This was a great book. Truly a masterpiece. I could not put this book down. I read the last 300 pages in one sitting. I felt like Nathan did when he told about reading Sister Carrie in one day. I loved the opening chapter. Stingo would be glad to know I thought it was as good as All the King's Men first chapter. Definitely in my top ten of favorite books. I highly recommend this book to anybody serious about reading great literature.

Rating:
Summary: Partly brilliant, completely overrated
Review: There is so much useless verbeage in this book that it is almost unreadable. Stingo is really a boring narrator when it comes down to it and his struggles to get laid do hardly a fine piece of literature make. And using the f-word is not really all that outrageous, is it now. Parts are undeniably brilliant, but the whole is a waste of time. (All this comes from someone who has a soft spot for that excessively wordy southerner, Thomas Wolfe.)

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best book I've ever read!
Review: The story of Sophie, a Polish girl who survived a Nazi concentration camp and is living in Brooklyn, her lover Nathan, a wild, weird, and sometimes wonderful guy, and their friend Stingo, who grows up to be the writer that describes it all. As the story moves through the lives of these three in Brooklyn, Sophie tells Stingo, in bits and pieces and with lots of flashbacks, the tale of her life in Poland and in Auschwitz. Her complex and contradictory feelings about her life, her father (who was actually a supporter of Hitler's so-called Jewish Solution), and her experience in Auschwitz are revealed bit by bit, complicated by her attempt to hide some of the things she feels most ashamed of. How Styron weaves these threads into such an engrossing and riveting story is an absolute wonder. His is a dazzling display of lyrical and powerful writing, combined with an equally dazzling display of a deep and compassionate understanding of the human heart. They made a movie of this book (Meryl Streep played Sophie and won the Oscar for best actress that year; Kevin Kline played Nathan), and I recently watched it again. At each scene I was disappointed, not because of what the movie showed, but because of all the things I knew had to be left out. This is a wonderful, wonderful book. It will make you cry, and make you laugh; it will make you depressed; it will make you stand up and cheer. You will cherish each and every page. It is truly one of the greatest books ever written.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent writing, but totally depressing
Review: I am an avid reader, and expected this book to be magnificent. While Styron's writing is top notch, there was nobody in the book who was normal! I gave up after 250 pages of weirdness. I most certainly could not identify with any of the characters, and the story line, which was depressing from the start, only promised to get worse. I read not only for entertainment, but also to improve my mind. It was only Styron's beautiful turn of phrase that kept me reading so long. Too bad the entire story centered around such despondency. There's plenty of nonfiction history about the concentration camps. A novel such as this does not, in my view, provide a compelling enough reason to endure the doom and gloom of wading through the miserable tale.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal!
Review: The brilliance in this novel lies not only in the depth given to Sophie's story and the anguish it is wrapped within, but also from the way Styron is able to portray the entire range of human emotions in such descriptive terms--anger, lunacy, lust, passion, fear, humor, guilt. I have never before seen any author who could so vividly outline the very nature of the human spirit in such profound tones.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book I've Ever Read!
Review: This novel is my favorite. I've read it more than once, and every time I pick it up, I'm caught up in Styron's beautiful, vivid, poetic style. Sophie's story within a story is at least as fascinating as Stingo's desire to find love and his struggle to write a novel. I fell in love with all of these characters and almost started crying when I realized I was almost finished with it! Sophie and Nathan are like the doomed lovers of Shakespeare: while their ultimate fate is tragic, their enduring love gives hope. Sophie's dark secret is shocking and horrible. I found myself cheering for Stingo when he was succeeding and my day was ruined when he was failing. Everyone must read this book!

Rating:
Summary: Attitudinal characters!
Review: In an age when much popular fiction features stock characters and scenarios the unique characters in Styron's novel provided a refreshing change. From Nathan's attitudinal outbreaks to Sophie's deliberate lies the characters present many sides that makes an otherwise mediocre novel more interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Most Brilliant Book After Look Homeward, Angel...
Review: In a brilliant novel that draws upon the post-WWII years, Styron captures the guilt and shame that spans across the continents. Inspired by the haunting Southern spirit of Wolfe and Faulkner, a young Southern writer travels North only to discover a horrifying story of a Polish woman who survived Aushwitz and her schizophrenia-stricken lover. A must-read to anyone looking for the new and unusual perspectives on history, as well as to those who hold as their life's meaning, the craft of writing.