Book #7 in my "marathon book list". Despite not reaching my goal of all 10 books (not including my monthly book club reads) by February I have continued on. Sophie's choice was a lengthy book and the writing style was not quite what I expected. This writer did make me realize that I'm not the biggest "tangent" person who talks/writes. He my friends entwined so many stories/tangents within the story that I at times was not the happiest of readers. However, that said, the story line- once you got through side stories- was interesting, honest and utterly sad.
Here is how Wikipedia describes the book...
Sophie's Choice is a novel by William Styron published in 1979. It concerns a young American Southerner, an aspiring writer, who befriends the Jewish Nathan Landau and his beautiful lover Sophie, a Polish (but non-Jewish) survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. The plot ultimately centers around a tragic decision Sophie was forced to make upon entering the concentration camp, a secret revealed near the end of the story.
An immediate bestseller and the basis of a successful film, the novel is often considered both Styron's best work and a major novel of the twentieth century. The difficult decision that shapes the character Sophie is sometimes used as an idiom. A Sophie's Choice is a tragic choice between two unbearable options.
I've always found stories about the holocaust interesting. I know it isn't feel good type of reading, but it is honest and this book is historical fiction, although I think this type of situation, Sophie's Choice, is probably true and happened to many Jews, Polish, Russian, etc whom were placed in concentration camps. It boggles my mind every time I read about the Holocaust how such things could have occurred and do occur. How can one race/ethnicity/culture be so "F$#ked up" excuse the adult language. And then on the reverse how could Jews, Polish, Russians, etc who survived the concentration camps live afterwards. How could they ever trust anyone again. How could they find happiness. I'm glad I read this book, although a little disappointed with his writing style, I found that I kept on wanting to read to wade through the other/extra mini dramas going on in the book and find out about Sophie's time in the concentration camp. Meryl Streep is one of my favorite actresses and she played Sophie and won her 2nd Oscar for best actress in this role. I haven't seen the movie, had been holding off until I got the book read and now I look forward to watching her on screen portray this woman I feel I know so well through the reading of Sophie's Choice.
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