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What Happened to Sophie Wilder
by
Christopher R. Beha (Goodreads Author)
Charlie Blakeman is living in New York, on Washington Square, struggling to write his second novel and floundering, when his college love, Sophie Wilder, returns to his life. Sophie, too, is struggling, though Charlie isn’t sure why. They’ve spoken only rarely since falling out a decade before. Now Sophie begins to tell Charlie the story of her life since then, particularl...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
May 29th 2012
by Tin House Books
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This was unlike any book I have ever read before. When I finished it, I sat for a very long time thinking about the ending, and all the pieces that came together. To say this was well-crafted is an understatement. It also contains plenty of ambiguity, which is what makes good literature. This is one book I wish I had read in a class where I could discuss it with others...that good, that complex, that compelling. I am happy to say I have Behe's memoir here to read, which also promises to bring ma...more
I don't usually write reviews, but I was so astonished by some of the bad ones that I felt compelled to say something. I loved this book. I have read it at least three times, maybe more, since it came out. It was one of those books where I was pleasantly surprised to find that it more than lived up to the hype surrounding its release. I went to something like three bookstores to find it, and finally cracked and bought the Kindle version after reading the sample. I read it all that night and crie...more
Christopher Beha addresses the issue of faith and living by that faith in a thoughtful and believable way in his debut novel. As I was reading it, I kept thinking that if Graham Greene had lived today, this could be one of his books - at least one that he would read. The character development is somewhat flat in that I didn't feel a strong connection to either of the main protagonists, but Mr. Beha has more novels to write and will hopefully strengthen that aspect of his writing. The structure o...more
This author is a beautiful writer -- he obviously cares very much about all the words and sentences he offers. He might be a little too much in love with his own process, however. His story and characters need more color and energy. Some of the most important events happen "off-screen," (SPOILERS: Examples -- the aquarium, what actually happened to Sophie Wilder) There is no conversation re the clippings with Bill Crane or Tom -- where is that? We need to be there for these events. Charlie's non...more
First of all, Beha's writing is impeccable. There isn't a misstep here. His style isn't overly descriptive or flowery; it's more spare and measured. Even so, we get a full picture of each scene. Second, the themes are interesting, especially if you enjoy reading (there's quite a bit about the power of story and lots of references to authors and writing) and if you are interested in Catholicism or religious conversion in general. In addition, the author captures the nearly universal feeling that...more
This story of twenty-somethings in New York, affluent yet at a loss as to what to do with their lives, is beautifully written, and definitely thought-provoking. What drives us day after day, what is the moral thread running through our lives, are we even aware of one these days?
For Sophie, Charlie and Max, three close friends trying to make sense of their lives, these are questions as challenging as the questions Job asks of God in the Bible. Charlie's point of view is the most intimate, told i...more
For Sophie, Charlie and Max, three close friends trying to make sense of their lives, these are questions as challenging as the questions Job asks of God in the Bible. Charlie's point of view is the most intimate, told i...more
Its taken me almost two months to make my way through this book - I didn't like it at all for 90% of the book. Maybe I'm getting lazy in my middle age, but I'm not very fond of books jumping through time, switching narrators, switching narrative styles, and then opening new chapters without any explanation as to when you are setting the chapter. Its clearly a popular writing technique these days, but I find it confusing, and distracting from the writing and the story. I also didn't like Sophie,...more
I read this recently and don't remember what it was about. Oh, right, it's about a guy drifting though life who runs into his former college girlfriend. During college, they would walk for hours in NYC making up elaborate stories for their future best-selling novels. She got published and became semi-famous. He got published and became unknown. She marries and finds Catholicism. He drifts some more. Several years pass and they meet again at a party. It's destiny, he thinks, yet ultimately, not t...more
Curses. Right now I’m sitting here wishing that I was in a book club that just finished reading “What Happened to Sophie Wilder” by Christopher R. Beha instead of not being in a book club and having just finished reading “What Happened to Sophie Wilder” by Christopher R. Beha. Alone. In a bathrobe. While my boyfriend is lying on the couch next to me, in the early chapters of “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn.
There are so many things I want to talk about. I want to deconstruct characters, especially...more
There are so many things I want to talk about. I want to deconstruct characters, especially...more
I read this book both because a trusted friend highly recommended it to me and because it was published by my new publisher, Tin House. It's a treat to read a novel that is simply different from the regular run of fiction, however excellent, that fills one's reading days. Sophie Wilder is brief and the prose is unshowy (sometimes sliding into unexpected loveliness) but the intention and the intelligence behind the work is unabashedly serious. Charlie Blakeman, the 28-year-old narrator, meets Sop...more
This debut novel by the author of the brilliant memoir "The Whole Five Feet" starts out as a college love story gone wrong, with many of the typical signposts and challenges: Some people are unfaithful, some people have greater talents than others, some succeed socially while others feel like outcasts. Etc.
This is all interesting enough -- smart kids growing up. But then the book completely transcends that story line, becoming something richer and deeper, by becoming an examination of faith -- r...more
This is all interesting enough -- smart kids growing up. But then the book completely transcends that story line, becoming something richer and deeper, by becoming an examination of faith -- r...more
What a perfect book. I almost didn't read it. I almost let my library ebook version expire because who wants to read another novel about rich twenty somethings in NYC? Been there, done that.
I'm so glad I gave it a chance.
Sophie and Charlie may not be the most likable characters, but they are just trying to get through life, making mistakes and probably focusing a bit too much on the past, the minute details that probably wouldn't normally matter but in the end were everything. Sure, Charlie is...more
I'm so glad I gave it a chance.
Sophie and Charlie may not be the most likable characters, but they are just trying to get through life, making mistakes and probably focusing a bit too much on the past, the minute details that probably wouldn't normally matter but in the end were everything. Sure, Charlie is...more
Okay, so a guy and a gal had a love affair during college. They were both into creative writing, and had experienced the death of one or more parents. He's never gotten over her. Now it's later on. They've both had books published. She's been married but the marriage broke up. Yes, they reunite (after a fashion, but there are no fireworks....). Where do we go from here? Well, for one thing, in the mean time, she found faith and became a Catholic. That was the most interesting plot development fo...more
I liked this book. I was struck by the parallels of this book to the 2011 booker winner by Julian Barnes, the sense of am ending (which you should read, if you haven't already).. Both books concern the relationship of two college students--an intelligent, intellectual, nonconformist, fiercely independent woman, and a self-effacing, creative man, also nonconformist but less aggressively so. The style of both books is similar--f. Scott Fitzgerald lean and insightful, well written. The plot is purs...more
I should preface this review by saying this is exactly the kind of story I love--young lovers go their separate ways and meet up again years later--so I was predisposed to liking it. (It reminded me of Vaclav & Lena in terms of how perfect it was for me.) Also, I read it immediately after slogging through a book that was so *not* my kind of story, which probably made me appreciate it even more
What Happened to Sophie Wilder is beautifully written. I was never once distracted by the language....more
What Happened to Sophie Wilder is beautifully written. I was never once distracted by the language....more
Christopher Beha's What Happened to Sophie Wilder is a well-written and intriguing, if not entirely enjoyable, meditation on creativity, faith, relationships, and coming to terms with one's demons. It tells the story of Charlie Blakeman, a young writer living in New York City, who is struggling to write his second novel, one he hopes will be more successful—and altogether better—than his first.
While a creative writing student in college, he met a fellow writer named Sophie Wilder. More talented...more
While a creative writing student in college, he met a fellow writer named Sophie Wilder. More talented...more
I'll admit I wasn't terribly engaged by the first half of the novel. There was such a "bubble" quality to the narrative as it alternated between the present of the characters' fairly hollow post-college lives, and their earnest/precious college years, as if they were the only people in the world fully formed and worth paying attention to. But the second broke out of that bubble and became genuinely stirring and challenging. What had at first seemed to be a story about what it means to be Writers...more
What Happened to Sophie Wilder covers a lot of territory--relationships, coming-of-age, family, jealousy, faith, right and wrong/good and evil. When listed like that, it would be easy to think this was a large, far ranging book. Instead, it is intimate and precise, characters and situations serving multiple purposes, particularly Charlie and Sophie around whom the story revolves.
I had a hard time entering the story at first, which alternates between the present, when Charlie encounters his for...more
I had a hard time entering the story at first, which alternates between the present, when Charlie encounters his for...more
Three and a half stars. Three stars for the experience of reading the book--the disjointed narrative, the too convenient plot points (it's not that any one event strains credibility, but more the aggregate effect of too many unlikely turns building upon each other without sufficient support from the narrative), and the bare bones style of having every scene end as soon as it possibly can. Four stars for the experience of thinking about the book, and the many interesting ideas it contains about w...more
Since the title ,"What happened to Sophie Wilder" is clearly a question and not an answer, perhaps the reader is supposed to remain ignorant of the enormous changes the main character undergoes. The narrator was clearly in love with Sophie, but seems to lack the assertiveness to question her lack of commitment to their relationship. Is the novel about the creative process? Neither character reaches his or her potential. Is the book about loss? The three main characters are all orphaned. Is it ab...more
I was halfway through this when I realized I didn't care about the ponderous first person narrator, a young writer living the writerly life in New York and trying to rekindle a relationship with the title character. I started skimming the first person chapters to get to Sophie Wilder's chapters. A convert to Catholicism, she takes on the task of caring for her estranged husband's estranged father. She's unpredictable and charismatic, and just intriguing enough to keep the reader's interest. Unfo...more
If I'm not reading books about journalists and missing girls, it seems I'm reading them about writers and manic pixie dream girls. To be blunt, I didn't care for Sophie (TOTAL MPDG) and the religious angle didn't work for me. The storytelling did work for the first half of the book, but as it dealt more with Sophie's conversion and her faith, I found myself less interested -- and unable to understand her motivations or why anyone would be so interested in her. (I am not remotely religious and fo...more
I loved this book. It is a great story with big religious and philosophical ideas fit into a never quite there relationship. Beha is a wonderful writer and he is young which means we have years of books to look forward to. Beha writes with soft and sensitive humour but with that trace of 21st century bemusement that some younger authors I have read reflect. That not quite connecting Woody Allen awkwardness while pursuing large ideas in small places is something that works for me. He also present...more
**SPOILERS**I have so many emotions about this book. First, I think that Beha writes really beautifully, and there's a lot to unpack in the images and language that he chooses to share here. However, with that I found myself a little bored with the characters themselves-- late twenty-something struggling writers. Although the characters weren't flat, they didn't feel as rounded as they could be, given that about a third of books are about late twenty-something struggling writers (or it may just...more
What Happened to Sophie Wilder is Christopher R. Beha’s debut novel. His previous work includes a memoir, The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everything Else, and co-editing (with Joyce Carol Oates) The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction. He is also an editor at Harper’s Magazine.
The book’s chapters alternate between the first-person narrative of Charlie Blakeman, Sophie Wilder’s college boyfriend, and the third-person narrati...more
The book’s chapters alternate between the first-person narrative of Charlie Blakeman, Sophie Wilder’s college boyfriend, and the third-person narrati...more
Almost gave up at 20pp. Got better, until I neared the middle, where it went into some terribly angsty territory. But I was too far in to stop. Second half started down, but then went like a seesaw, some moments stronger than others. I think what I disliked most were Sophie's encounters with Charlie. They were thoroughly unexciting. And the book could use some cinching. I made it through, but it could easily have been more impactful had the text not kept me in edit mode most of the way.
Physicall...more
Physicall...more
The jacket copy on this book says that our hero, Charlie Blakeman, "sets out to discover what happened to Sophie Wilder." No, no, no. Charlie doesn't "set out," he doesn't do anything but drift while things happen around him. Sophie is a somewhat intriguing character and she does actually think thoughts and do things -- not always very intelligent thoughts or activities -- but still something.
There is a great deal of time and voice shifting from chapter to chapter, but it's fairly well executed...more
There is a great deal of time and voice shifting from chapter to chapter, but it's fairly well executed...more
It's very good, especially when one realizes that it's his debut novel. I thought the ending weakened things considerably, and I don't mean for the actual action that occurs (no spoilers here). But the complex relationship between Charlie and Sophie was intriguing. It is every bit as hard for the reader to try to figure Sophie out as it is for Charlie. Good use of NY setting/Washington Square. I was a bit wary of reading it b/c of its advertising announcing involvement with a faith conversion, b...more
hrmm, this had that melancholy college romance vibe going on. Well really, a romance that never quite became what it could have been and I blame Sophie for that entirely. She was pretty cruel in her college years I have to say. Dude was stupid to be hanging around waiting for her anyways. Post college sees people married, divorced, or plodding along at the same pace they had when they were in school, and they are either happy or sad about it. I wasn't moved by any of the characters in this book...more
(SEMI-SPOILER ALERT for the second paragraph, here!)
It's unusual for such a literary book, with similarly "literary" characters (i.e, young, somewhat bohemian intellectuals, in this case) to discuss religious faith so intelligently, sensitively, honestly, respectfully and movingly. As someone who underwent a similar religious experience as Sophie, albeit at the much younger age of 12, I found the description of it to be spot-on.
I confess I am a bit confused and mystified about the chronology/ti...more
It's unusual for such a literary book, with similarly "literary" characters (i.e, young, somewhat bohemian intellectuals, in this case) to discuss religious faith so intelligently, sensitively, honestly, respectfully and movingly. As someone who underwent a similar religious experience as Sophie, albeit at the much younger age of 12, I found the description of it to be spot-on.
I confess I am a bit confused and mystified about the chronology/ti...more
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“There was something beautiful and timeless to her about a hardback without its jacket, a book that could be known in no way except by reading it.”
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2 people liked it
“In truth we were quickly reaching--had likely enough already reached--the age where it no longer made sense to talk about "promise." It was around this time that I remarked to Max that no matter what we now achieved no one would say, "He's so young." Precocity had passed us by.
"After twenty-eight," I sad sadly, "you're judged on your merits."
"Unless one of us dies," Max corrected me. "Then they'll all say, 'He was so young.”
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"After twenty-eight," I sad sadly, "you're judged on your merits."
"Unless one of us dies," Max corrected me. "Then they'll all say, 'He was so young.”

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