Review of Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Title: A writer gets carried away with himself and his style
Some random notes on reading this novel:
1. "Call me Stingo."
Wow. He really nearly opened Sophie's Choice with that line. At least he saved it for the second paragraph! What balls to take something from Moby Dick and try to make it your own like that.
2. Novelists give themselves away in their books. They can't help it. You've got several hundred pages to fill; some of you is bound to come out inside the story, intentionally or not. In Sophie's Choice, Styron doesn't shy away from this; he *embraces* it. He *celebrates* it. He pulls the plug on himself and let's all of him out.
3. Styron is a writer who loves to write. Boy does he love to write. And write, and write, and write. He can say in 2 pages what could take 2 sentences to express. It's how he does it.
4. In Sophie's Choice Styron gets to "split" himself up: At several points in the text we're told that the "I" is in the "now" (late 1970s) writing about his younger self in 1947. It's a neat literary trick that allows Styron (the writer) to give to his narrator (Stingo, the writer) speech and insight he'd normally not have. If you're not going to take the "God" point of view 3rd person to tell your story, you'll use the 1st person to make the "I" the god. This fits Styron's "fuck God" motto perfectly.
5. This novel is an interesting look into Styron the writer because he uses Stingo, the book's narrator, to explain how he, Styron, came to write two of his novels, Lie Down in Darkness and The Confessions of Nat Turner. Stingo/Styron goes into much detail explaining his writing, why he chose these subjects, his writing habits. See note #3 above.
6. Weeks after writing notes 1-5 I can write this: It took a lot of text for Styron to get to Sophie's Choice. If you want to venture into this novel, keep in mind that it gets to be a bit of a slog after a while. If you know nothing of the Holocaust, this fictionalized look will be a good introduction. If you're a bit of a history buff, like me, you'll know this already but may appreciate the fictionalized details.
Be prepared to go down a few personal side stories with Styron as he admires his alter ego, Stingo, the novelist in the novel. Some of his escapades are really funny; others seem to me to be just the ego-driven ramblings of a young man who hasn't lived much or thought very broadly yet thinks very highly of himself.
It's OK:
3/5 on Amazon
2/5 on Goodreads
PS: I picked up my copy of this novel in Costa Rica, of all places. I ran out of books to read, of the ones I'd brought with me. I read about 100 or so pages in, and our stay ended, but the manager of the resort said, Take it with you. So I did. It's this old, water-worn, beat-up copy of a paperback that's styled like a romance novel. In blazing letters across the front it states: "A novel for everyone!"
Wow is that off base.
PPS: If you're still going to read Sophie's Choice, I recommend balancing it out with Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It was published just after the war, by a man who survived a concentration camp. It's a somber look at the human experiences of the camps and of how people learned to sustain themselves in and through those experiences.
Some random notes on reading this novel:
1. "Call me Stingo."
Wow. He really nearly opened Sophie's Choice with that line. At least he saved it for the second paragraph! What balls to take something from Moby Dick and try to make it your own like that.
2. Novelists give themselves away in their books. They can't help it. You've got several hundred pages to fill; some of you is bound to come out inside the story, intentionally or not. In Sophie's Choice, Styron doesn't shy away from this; he *embraces* it. He *celebrates* it. He pulls the plug on himself and let's all of him out.
3. Styron is a writer who loves to write. Boy does he love to write. And write, and write, and write. He can say in 2 pages what could take 2 sentences to express. It's how he does it.
4. In Sophie's Choice Styron gets to "split" himself up: At several points in the text we're told that the "I" is in the "now" (late 1970s) writing about his younger self in 1947. It's a neat literary trick that allows Styron (the writer) to give to his narrator (Stingo, the writer) speech and insight he'd normally not have. If you're not going to take the "God" point of view 3rd person to tell your story, you'll use the 1st person to make the "I" the god. This fits Styron's "fuck God" motto perfectly.
5. This novel is an interesting look into Styron the writer because he uses Stingo, the book's narrator, to explain how he, Styron, came to write two of his novels, Lie Down in Darkness and The Confessions of Nat Turner. Stingo/Styron goes into much detail explaining his writing, why he chose these subjects, his writing habits. See note #3 above.
6. Weeks after writing notes 1-5 I can write this: It took a lot of text for Styron to get to Sophie's Choice. If you want to venture into this novel, keep in mind that it gets to be a bit of a slog after a while. If you know nothing of the Holocaust, this fictionalized look will be a good introduction. If you're a bit of a history buff, like me, you'll know this already but may appreciate the fictionalized details.
Be prepared to go down a few personal side stories with Styron as he admires his alter ego, Stingo, the novelist in the novel. Some of his escapades are really funny; others seem to me to be just the ego-driven ramblings of a young man who hasn't lived much or thought very broadly yet thinks very highly of himself.
It's OK:
3/5 on Amazon
2/5 on Goodreads
PS: I picked up my copy of this novel in Costa Rica, of all places. I ran out of books to read, of the ones I'd brought with me. I read about 100 or so pages in, and our stay ended, but the manager of the resort said, Take it with you. So I did. It's this old, water-worn, beat-up copy of a paperback that's styled like a romance novel. In blazing letters across the front it states: "A novel for everyone!"
Wow is that off base.
PPS: If you're still going to read Sophie's Choice, I recommend balancing it out with Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It was published just after the war, by a man who survived a concentration camp. It's a somber look at the human experiences of the camps and of how people learned to sustain themselves in and through those experiences.
No comments have been added yet.
