Sophie's Choice, William Styron

It’s taken me a while to finish this book.  About two weeks.  Ordinarily I’d be plowing through a book a week, but it all came to a screaming halt once I picked this book up.

It isn’t often that I dislike the main character of a book, but I found myself disliking Stingo, the young, impressionable protagonist.  His naïveté irritated me although the story would have been altered had it been told through the eyes of somebody older and savvy.  No doubt altered in a negative way for lovers of this book for there would be almost no mystery involved.

The layout of the book didn’t appeal to me either.  The disjointed story-telling, coupled with the lies that Sophie tells and the back-tracking and re-telling, all contributed to a feeling of being lost.

I got impatient with the tumultuous, doomed relationship between Nathan and Sophie and just wanted to get down to the nitty gritty of what this choice was!

I haven’t seen the movie, and I haven’t heard much at all about it.  I have heard many a reference to this choice of Sophie’s and curiosity got the better of me and acted as the motivation to read Styron’s novel.

For those of you who are where I was previously, I won’t ruin the story for you.  Suffice to say that I cried and if given the same choice, I don’t know what I would do.  It’s a cruel choice, but the alternative was just as cruel.

I learnt a lot.  About the concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau.  About their roles in the war.  About what each camp was designed for.  About the roles of the Poles in these camps and about the roles of some prisoners in the Commandant’s house.

It was with a sense of relief that I turned the last page and finished this novel.  And it’s with a small sense of dread that I pick up our next book club choice: Room by Emma Donoghue.  Since becoming a parent, I can't seem to stomach stories involving cruelty to children.

So tell me.  Have you ever read a popular book and not liked it?  Am I all alone here?