One of the most well-written book I've read to date, Sophie's Choice is like a Beethoven symphony - perhaps Pastorale was in Styron's mind while he wrote the novel, as that title came up more than once as I recall - and one needs to take care reading it to comprehend how truly remarkable this book is.

I thought, through most of the pages, that the choice in Sophie's Choice refers to the fact that Sophie tangles with two men in her life and she has a choice to make. Of course, I was fooled through 500 plus pages of wading through heavy but incredibly beautiful and stunning prose until that powerful and shocking revelation. I did find the book thick at times, especially through the middle, but I was drawn deeply to Styron's mastery of words. I found myself wanting to learn from the work, not just its wealth of fresh words, but the shrewdness in the way Styron sees and describes things, his approach, and everything else about his process as a writer, which he so cleverly encapsulates in Stingo's character.

I loved the many references to classical music and literature. It's not easy to finish, but it's an important book to read and I believe it's one of the best books I've read. ( )

My first umambiguous thought is that I really, really liked this book. And I almost feel guilty saying that, because the subject matter was so heavy and sad, that it feels wrong to say that I enjoyed reading it. Yes, there were some parts that were very sad, and shocking, and horrible, but Styron kept you on your toes as a reader, waiting until the very end to find out the truth about Sophie and Nathan, revealing things piece by piece, getting to the very core of his characters and their experiences. The characters were all multi-dimensional and easy to sympathize with, even Nathan, once I learned that he was psychotic and on drugs and couldn't really help his horrible behavior. They were all characters that came from broken places. The writing was beautiful and I was sucked in from page one.

I haven't read any books on the Holocaust, and in fact on our family vacation to Washington, DC last month, actively campaigned to skip the Holocaust Museum, knowing how gut-wrenching it would be to see, or even learn about any of that. Now I am sorry I missed it. I had no idea that the Holocaust affected so many people of all ages, and not all of them Jewish or German.

What I found most interesting at many times during the book was how Styron would take Nazi characters like Hoss, his daughter Emmi, or the doctor on the platform, reveal them one moment as unfeeling automatons who believed and did as they were commanded, but then in the next paragraph would show something of their humanity, showing that even inside terrible people is something human we can relate to. Everyone in the book had a dirty secret or guilt that they were trying to live with, whether they were Nazi or not. In the end, we're all human and imperfect.

I am reading my way through the Modern Library's Top 100 Board's books, and out of Books 100-96, it was the only one so far that I sank into and never wanted to resurface. Totally recommended. ( )

I read this (sort of) once before, in 1985 after seeing the movie. I remember I was traveling on a plane from New Mexico (where I lived at the time) to Seattle (to visit family). I had the book on the plane & had been reading it, but having a hard time with it & when I left the plane I left the book without finishing it. Leaving a book behind is extremely unusual for me - I never go anywhere without a book & I just about always finish just about everything. I decided that I just wasn't meant to read this book if I'd left it behind. I was 22. I had equal trouble with Lie Down in Darkness - just couldn't get through it. I loved his book on his own struggles with depression - Darkness Visible - I thought it was one of the truest pieces of writing about depression that I had ever read. I figured eventually I'd get back to his fiction.

I picked up Sophie's Choice again as part of a reading challenge - to read some American prize winning books & compare them. I'm glad I did. This one won the National Book Award. Styron can write & he can tell a story - painful though it may be. I loved the craft of this book, the interplay of language & the brick-by-brick-by-word-by-word deftness of his creations - Stingo, Sophie, & Nathan & long ago far away Brooklyn.

As much a meditation on his younger days as a fledgling writer as it is a Holocaust story, this novel is also a Southerner's rumination on what it means to be Southern, to be liberal, to have lived through the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis & to see similar horrors perpetrated in your home (see also, slavery & lynchings). There are aspects of this book that remind me very clearly of North Toward Home - Willie Morris' wonderful memoir about being a Southerner among Northern intellectuals. Styron beautifully captures Stingo's naivete & self-conscious youth as he struggles with his first novel.

Equally well-drawn are the doomed Nathan & Sophie - their mutual histories of madness & despair intertwined in fatal & beautiful ways. It is worth remembering that more than Europe's Jews were caught up in the Nazi insanity - Sophie's story is just one of many.

This is a difficult, painful & ultimately worthwhile novel. Read it - you won't regret it. ( )

In a review by the Washington Post, the novel Sophie’s Choice was named “Styron's most impressive performance....It belongs on that small shelf reserved for American masterpieces.” Sophie’s Choice by William Styron is the tragic story of two doomed lovers, each with unbearable secrets and anguish whose lives become fatally intertwined in a whirlwind of torment and catastrophe. Styron’s novel, although fictional, accurately portrays the horrifying conditions and long-term effects of the Holocaust, although it is not merely another novel about this historical nightmare. The book covers all dimensions of human life - the suffering and tragedy, yes - but also the hope.

Styron’s novel is set in Brooklyn, New York, in the year 1947. The story is told by the narrator, Stingo, who, much like Styron, is an aspiring writer. The novel is set up as if an older Stingo is writing and reflecting on his time spent in New York in 1947, just a few years after the war ended and the horrors of the concentration camps were made public. The narrator Stingo is a struggling writer who befriends the eccentric and inevitably doomed couple: Sophie, a Holocaust survivor with a haunting secret and unbelievable past, and Nathan, the demonically brilliant man suffering from a variety of mental disorders. The relationship between Nathan and Sophie can be tender and loving in one instant, and then fall to pieces the next, with Nathan hurling cutting insults at Sophie and even resorting to terrible acts of violence and abuse. As their relationship begins spiraling out of control, Sophie turns to Stingo and piece by piece reveals to him the horrifying secrets of her past.

Sophie’s Choice is an absolutely brilliant novel, which manages to accurately show the reader the horrors of the Holocaust through the eyes of a realistic, sympathetic character. Although this book is fictional there is most likely a person, or perhaps even many people, who were like Sophie and witnessed all the horrors and atrocities that she had witnessed. There are probably also people who, like Sophie, were given the horrifying choice of choosing between her two children; which one would be killed instantly at the crematoriums of Birkenau and which would be allowed to live in the work camps of Auschwitz. In addition, the novel also investigates another terrible aspect of life, mental illness. This is shown through the character of Nathan, Sophie’s demonically brilliant lover who has the capacity to contribute wonderful things to the world through his remarkable talent, but is never able to “get his head in order.” The odd pairing of Holocaust survivor and schizophrenic creates a tragic though poignant novel that closely examines the darker, more disturbing and terrifying side of human life.

Although Sophie’s Choice is about incredibly emotional and heartrending topics, the narrator Stingo is able to alleviate the gloom with his own commentaries and insights, as well as his sense of humor. As Sophie relays her stories to Stingo, Stingo comments on her stories and further investigates the history surrounding them. Through the character of Stingo the reader is also allowed a side story that doesn’t directly involve the tragic couple of Sophie and Nathan. Stingo also comments on the nature of writing and being a writer, perhaps Styron’s own views concerning his own writing.

Sophie’s Choice is an absolute must-read novel. The novel is valuable not only for its incredibly realistic information about the horrors of the holocaust, but it also dives beneath the surface of these horrors, commenting on the darker, more sinister side of human nature. The novel also deals with topics that are extremely timely and applicable today such as death, mental illness, grief, guilt etc. In addition, the storyline is brilliant and extremely interesting, offering a great and worthwhile read that really forces you to think deeply about the issues in the novel. I highly recommend Sophie’s Choice as it is an insightful, interesting and worthwhile read. ( )

It began far funnier than I thought it would be. There was also a lot of sex. Still — my god — how depressing. ( )