20 Books You Must Read Before You Croak: Book 2: 'Sophie's Choice' - William Styron

What is the book about?

It concerns Stingo, a young American Southerner and 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. As the friendship deepens, Stingo learns of Sophie’s trials and tribulations in the Auschwitz camp during WW2, her association with the commander Rudolf Hoss, her (failed) attempt to get her son enlisted in the Lebensborn programme, and the horrific “choice” she had to make when arriving in Auschwitz. Sophie’s affair with Nathan, a self-proclaimed genius of Jewish descent, is tempestuous. Nathan, unbeknownst to Sophie and Stingo, suffers from schizophrenia, and is inclined towards violence. He accuses Stingo and Sophie of having an affair, and threatens to kill them. Stingo tries to save Sophie by running away with her (this is the point where she shares with him the “choice” referred to in the book’s title), but unable to free herself from guilt, she returns to Nathan, with devastating consequences.

Why this book?

This is a stupendous book of some 650 pages and can thus be intimidating. But if you are looking for a book with a solid statement about the human condition during WW2 and the scars the war left on the human soul, look no further. Even if you are not specifically looking for something intellectually challenging, there are still plenty of reasons why you should pick it up. The book comments on how history and the individual are intertwined. WW2, a war usually associated with the termination of Jews, is also everyone’s war – in the sense that everyone involved in it, regardless of ethnicity or religion, is indelibly marked. It also testifies to the incredible ability of the human will to survive the most abject of conditions, and conversely, reveals how guilt can wear down an individual’s conscience and leads him/her to self-destruction. It is also an angry book. The author’s ironic portrayals of Nazi officers are full of pent-up anger.

What will I walk away with when I am done with this book?

You will have learnt a great deal about the sufferings of WW2 war prisoners and the human capacity for evil. It is a sombre and upsetting book, with detailed descriptions of the behaviours of Nazi officers which can incense the reader. But that is the whole point of the book: Evil is real and unavoidable.

What would be a good book to read after this?

Undoubtedly, Thomas Keneally’s “Schindler’s List.” Many are familiar with Spielberg’s film adaptation so may not be inclined to read it. Otherwise, Norman Mailer’s “The Castle in the Forest,” a book about the (supposedly fictitious) childhood, adolescence, and rise of Hitler, should fill the gap.