Sophie's Choice

Name: Sophie's Choice
Author: William Styron

William Styron · 1979

Styron's 1979 Holocaust novel, told from Brooklyn through a Southern writer's encounter with Sophie, a Polish survivor. Her secret (the choice that gives the novel its title) is among the most shattering revelations in American fiction. A novel about guilt, survival, and the impossibility of testimony.

The case against

on the subject matter
“a strong but skin-deep psychosexual melodrama”
Unsigned review · Kirkus Reviews, 1979
on the tonal mix
“the juxtaposition of Stingo’s horny, struggling writer story”
a book blog
on cuttable subplots
“Styron didn’t want to cut working at McGraw Hill or Leslie Lapidus”
three stars · a book blog
on the sexual material
“the ‘Stingo trying to get laid’ bits could be more or less left out”
a book blog