Another double: Ernie on Schindler's List and Sandra on Sophie's Choice

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron --Since this novel comes in at #96 on the ML list and #57 on the RR list I won’t be too hard on it.  After the previous torture from Henry James (see Aug 1 post) at least here is a book with a coherent narrative. 

I had heard of this book mostly because I remember when the movie version with Meryl Streep came out and knew it had something to do with the Holocaust.  Sophie is not Jewish but has spent time in Auschwitz as the Nazis swept her up in one of their raids in Warsaw.  Of course there is much more to the story then that, but she survives the war and ends up in New York City.  The story of the summer of 1947 in Flatbush is told by Stingo, a 22 year old Virginian who has come to the big city to write the great American novel.  The story of Sophie and her doomed love affair with Nathan who is Jewish is one part of the narrative and another part is the story she tells Stingo about her life before NYC.   

Since Stingo is, as I mentioned before, a 22 year old man I guess the fixation on fornicating (I’ll use a more polite word than he does) is not unusual but I found it to be tiresome after a while.  And when he finally does get around to actually doing it I found it a not believable part of the story he is telling.   So anyway, as far as great books go I wouldn’t put this on the list of all time greats, but it’s not hard to read although I think the author is a little free with the unnecessarily big words that you have never seen or heard before. 

The parts about Poland and Auschwitz are the best parts of this book.  He tells a very compelling story here and you are interested to find out exactly what Sophie’s “choice” is going to turn out to be.  As she tells different versions of what happened and my perception of things changed with each new layer I began to think her choice would have something to do with something horrible she did in order to survive.  That wasn’t exactly what it turned out to be but you can figure it out without reading the book by googling the phrase.  It has become part of our vocabulary but I was not familiar with its meaning.  I found it on a story about the debt ceiling for goodness sakes so its meaning has become more generic.  The parts of the book dealing with this time period are very good, but I’m not sure what the point of the rest of the book is. 

There is some waxing on about the South so there are some comparisons about the treatment of Negroes in the South and Jews in Europe.  Stingo’s father comes for a brief visit to Yankeeland and is not impressed.   He is probably the most likeable character in the book.  He has a run-in with a cab driver that only reinforces his bad opinion of the North and quite astutely observes “Simply put, people abrogated their equality when they were unable to speak to each other in human terms.” 

As Stingo has literary aspirations it comes as no surprise that he is a great reader and I was interested to note that he mentions many of the books and many of the authors that we have been, or will be shortly, reading.  It was a help to have some context for what he was talking about.  Also, the characters of Nathan and Sophie have a great love of music and there are lots of references to classical works I wish I was more familiar with.  Maybe I’ll be inspired to check some of them out.

As you can guess, things do not turn out well for Sophie.  But this last quote I found in an obituary of William Styron may explain one reason for reading such a book:   The conscious turning away from the tragic aspect of life diminishes us.—William Styron

Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally- Schindler’s List tells the story of Oskar Schindler, an unlikely hero who saved hundreds of people from the Nazi Holocaust in Poland.  Since the Steven Spielberg film, the story is well known but the book is well worth reading to gain more insight into Oskar Schindler and the many other heroes who struggled to save one small corner of humanity.

Keneally attempts to describe Schindler and his motivations but seems frustrated by the history and the man himself.  Critics point out that, while saving the Schindlerjuden, Schindler made a fortune in wartime contracts and on the black market.  Yet Schindler freely spent most if not all of his profits on food, medicine and bribes to keep his workers alive.  In describing a lavish diamond ring presented to an SS Officer in exchange for weapons, Keneally writes, If Frau Rasch, in the last and fullest days of her husband’s power…gazed into the core of the diamond that had come to her from Oskar Schindler, she would have seen reflected there the worst incubus from her own dreams and her Fuhrer’s.  An armed Marxist Jew.  The book takes us to loud, drunken parties with Nazi officials and SS officers where Schindler wheedles out the tiny favors he needs to protect his people.  Oskar Schindler makes promises that are impossible to keep, yet he does.  Keneally readily agrees that Schindler was no saint.  At the end of the book, I felt I didn’t know Schindler much better than I did at the start.  Apparently, that is exactly how Oskar Schindler meant to keep it.

It’s described as a fictional novel but I found it to be neither fictional nor a novel.  As you may tell from my writings, I have a hard time defining what a novel is exactly but Schindler’s List reads as a documentary, or an episodic biography.  It is full of detailed incidents, told from many viewpoints that often contradict each other in small detail.  This gives the story, the legend of Oskar Schindler, a less polished, more human aspect.  While set against the twin struggles of WWII and the Holocaust in Poland and Germany, the story is not epic in scope.  It is always very personal and humanizing, even when describing the vain, powerful and greedy men that epitomize Nazi evil.

While a great book, I have a hard time saying it’s a great novel.  Either way, I recommend you read Schindler’s List.