William Styron

- Presents the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from "The Odyssey through modern literature- The critical essays reflect a variety of schools of criticism- Contains critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index- Introductory essay by Harold Bloom

Sophie's Choice

Three stories are told: a young Southerner wants to become a writer; a turbulent love-hate affair between a brilliant Jew and a beautiful Polish woman; and of an awful wound in that woman's past--one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction.

Neva Davies

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This book was odd for me. There are some aspects of it that I liked and some not so much. I found the writer's style to be unnecessarily complex throughout most of the book, producing many rambling passages that didn't add to the story. I'm not sure what the point of the story line involving Leslie or Mary Alice was, other than to get the point across that the main character was sexually inexperienced and frustrated. Surely there are more succinct ways of doing that. In that same vein, I think the book could have benefitted from some editing to reduce the length. I struggled to stay involved with the story initially sa the characters just seemed to go through the same motions over and over again.

I found Stingo to be mostly uninteresting as a character and Nathan was OK. I think that I might have enjoyed the book more if the author had just told Sophie's story.

Janet Doré

During my trip to Poland, I wanted to read as much as I could on anything Polish. This book was good, but quite tedious and long. It was slow going, but I'm glad I plodded through it...the same way I feel when I read certain 'intellectual' classics.

Sophie's Choice

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