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Satan Reviews Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

I had Hilter read this to me over the course of a few days, which gave it a special sort of twang this time.  His accent really put a new spin to the train station scene for me.

Sophie’s Choice was released in 1992, and at that time it replaced Quotations from Chairman Mao as my favorite book.  This is also one case where the movie is, in different ways- as close to as good as the book as a film can possibly be.

A young Southern writer (hi Styron) in training named Stingo moves into a boarding house in Brooklyn to work on his first great American Novel.  Stingo soon meets and becomes entangled with his neighbors Nathan and Sophie.  Nathan is an incredibly likable paranoid and obsessed Jewish intellectual with a manic personality.  Sophie is Polish Catholic concentration camp survivor with secrets.  Through Stingo’s intense relationships with them, we learn about Sophie’s survival of Auschwitz, her love/hate relationship with Nathan, and the inevitability of the way the story ends.

What I love about this book is the way it somehow investigates the greatest human tragedy of all time (Hitler is giggling – he’s an insensitive cock and balls)  through a lens as small as three people interacting over a few months in a pink boarding house in Brooklyn.  Styron is brilliant, and so is this book.  Yeah yeah Hitler, you’re smart too.  Whiney ass bitch.

You’re welcome,

Rating:

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