Product Description

In this extraordinary novel, Stingo, an inexperienced twenty-two year old Southerner, takes us back to the summer of 1947 and a boarding house in a leafy Brooklyn suburb. There, he meets Nathan, a fiery Jewish intellectual; and Sophie, a beautiful and fragile Polish Catholic. Stingo is drawn into the heart of their passionate and destructive relationship as witness, confidant and supplicant. Ultimately, he arrives at the dark core of Sophie's past: her memories of pre-war Poland, the concentration camp and - the essence of her terrible secret - her choice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96107 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 632 pages

Daily Express
A compassionate insight into the greatest evil of our century

The Times
A compassionate, brilliantly written novel

The Times
...a rare insight into the tragic destiny of mankind

Customer Reviews

A deeply uncomfortable read
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.

disappointing
I was soundly disappointed by this book. The concept is great. The execution, though, is sorely lacking. The novel's first chapter or so is very promising, but Styron's novelistic technique just does not hold up to the gravity of his topic. Sophie's tale is narrated through Styron's younger alter-ego 'Stingo', having met Sophie in New York shortly after the end of World War 2. Sophie's harrowing confessions are interspersed, incongruously, with Stingo's adolescent sexual fantasies about the various girls who refuse to 'give it up', and the sections where Sophie is supposed to be speaking are rather clumsily placed and actually poorly crafted. Stingo's sexual fantasies, combined with the way ex-Auschwitz inmate Sophie is described in terms of her oozing Polish sexuality, along with the grotesque accounts of her sexual abuse, reduce the potency of what promises to be an earth-stopping work of fiction and actually makes it rather offensive on many levels. Styron also, confusingly, mixes fiction with fact: Rudolf Hess pops up as a character, and Styron includes quotes by theoreticians (such as Hannah Arendt) to bolster his case, if he has a case. Unfortunately, the impression gleaned is that of a man who has read the beginner's guide to the holocaust and now believes he has the answer to the meaning of life and man's inhumanity to man etc etc etc. Mr Styron has, however, been afflicted (apparently) with rather a limited intelligence, or at least one that has been badly compromised by his ego (from which the reader is never distanced). None of these aspects in themselves make for a bad work of fiction, and Styron could have got away with these flaws if he was, quite simply, a better writer. Ultimately, the only interesting thing about this book is Sophie's central dilemma, the gravity of which is insulted by Styron's grating ineptitude; and if you already know what Sophie's choice is, or if you have seen the film, don't bother reading this. And if you don't know, just watch the film. The film isn't that good either, but you'll waste less of your time on that than on this overlong, overblown piece of pseudo-literature.

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 feeling you won't be able to shake off for days!