Sophie's Choice

Sophie's Choice (1979) is a novel written by William Styron about a young American Southerner who wants to be a writer and befriends Nathan, who is Jewish, and his beautiful lover Sophie, a Polish (but not Jewish) survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. An immediate bestseller and a successful film, the novel is often considered both Styron's best work and a major novel of the twentieth century.

Style

Sophie?s Choice is a realistic first person novel. The story is ostensibly told by a much older Stingo, now a successful novelist, remembering this tragic event of his youth. The older Stingo digresses at length on his attitudes as a youth (occasionally including his journal entries, particularly after sexual experiences) as well as the broader issues of the American South and the Holocaust.

Related Topics:
Realistic - Holocaust

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