Rating: 
Summary: a brilliant and lyrical masterpiece
Review: For this reviewer, "The Painted Bird," "To Kill A Mockingbird," and "The Catcher in the Rye," Styron's book have a transcendent power that is undeniable. Beautifully written (keep a dictionary handy, unless your name is William F. Buckley, Jr.), Styron mixes hilarious passages with the tragic narrative and slowly reveals secrets of Sophie and Nathan. I first read this book when it came out for a college course on Literature and The Holocaust. Its depth and beauty still floors me. Styron is one of our great American writers, and this is a true 5-star masterpiece. Also: read the recently released biography on Styron to get an in-depth look at how and who he based his 'Sophie' characters on.
Rating: 
Summary: A novel one can really get into.
Review: I was first told that this book was about a woman who had to make a terrible choice while in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. However, after beginning to read the book, I discovered that it was far more dynamic than that. Some of the recounts of Sophie's past were moving, but equally emotional were the tellings of her life (and Nathan's) at present. I found Nathan's character to be very interesting, though basically insane. Stingo seemed to want his life to be filled with exciting things, but realized that he was pretty much just an ordinary guy. The prose and descriptions in the book were very detailed and complex, yet rarely boring. I enjoyed this story, and found myself feeling intwined in the characters' lives and emotions from time to time. There was an overabundance of sexual refrences, but nonetheless, I recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring!
Review: This book was so poorly written I couldn't finish it. How could he make such interestingly sad subject matter such a crashing bore? After trying many times to get past his gigantic and dull paragraphs I finally gave up and threw the book across the room in frustration.
Rating:
Summary: masterpiece
Review: I read this book while working my way up the Modern Library's list of the top 100 novels written in English this century. (I've read a lot of them before, but am filling in the holes in my reading.) In short, this is the best book I have ever read. The writing is excellent; the characters all came alive for me; and Styron treats the intertwining stories -- each of which presents great problems -- brilliantly. If you are looking for a serious (actually, very serious) book, read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Powerfully and beautifully written;Styron's masterpiece!
Review: "Sophie's Choice" is, quite simply, the best novel I have ever read. I have reread it several times since I bought it in 1977, and the utter perfection of the writing never fails to amaze me. In my opinion, it is truly great literature...a work that will stand the test of time. What an incredible piece of writing! My number one criterion for a fine novel is that the characters must come alive for the reader, and those in this book live and breathe for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Tragic & Original Story Ruined By Writer's Faults
Review: If Styron had just ejected his dull main character Stingo along with his perverse sexploitation of Sophie, this would be a brilliant novel about an unspeakable choice a young woman was forced to make while interned in a concentration camp & the devastating effects of that choice on the rest of her life.
Rating:
Summary: Simply magnificent!
Review: I was incredibly impressed by this outstanding piece of American literature. William Styron is a wonderful writer and this is truly spectacular. I've read a number of books and this one was one that kept me reading. It actually took, like, 6 months for me to finish it among other things I was doing and I'm glad I stuck it through and read every last page. I know it's a favorite of mine because the vivid pictures of the Holocaust and Nathan and Sophie and Stingo are still fresh in my mind and I can relate to them as real people, not just characters in a book. I still have yet to see the Meryl Streep movie, but I hope it lives up to its literary counterpart. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Lyrical, sad and beautiful...like Meryl Streep herself.
Review: This book will break your heart and yet....you can see the title should have been Sophie's Choices. She made many...some were good...most weren't. She comes across as the most honest of women. Buy this book and become engrossed!!!
Rating:
Summary: Very, Very Good!
Review: A masterful piece of literature by all accounts. Sophie's Choice was a tale I found personally moving. It is a truly tragic story; now whenever I think of a tragedy, I tend to think of the life of the main character of this novel, Sophie Zawistowska. The book shows us the horrors of the Holocaust, and the effects those horrors can have on the human physche. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, so long as they are mature enough to deal with what it contains. It is a rather blunt book, especially when it comes to sexuality. At first I was annoyed by this, but I later realized that the book is only very honest. A more honest, more moving, more masterfully written work is hard to find. I have often wondered how I would have reacted had I been confronted with the terrible choice Sophie was forced to make.
Rating:
Summary: Echos of the Past Resound in the Present
Review: It is amazing how much a story of the holocaust can seem so fresh in light of the current tragedy taking place in Europe. The author did a brilliant job making you feel the emotions that Sophie felt. At first I was annoyed by the flashback sequences used to tell the story. As I got further into the story, I realized that if Sophies story was told all at once, It would be too horrible to bare. This is the first novel on the top 100 list that I felt actually earned its spot. I enjoyed the fact that the novel had not only had a plot, but a counter-plot to put the horror into perspective.
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