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5. The Bottom Shelf: On Novels I Keep Trying and Failing to Read
- University of Wisconsin Press
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73 5 The Bot tom Shelf On Nov els I Keep Try ing and Fail ing to Read I love William Styron’s novel Sophie’s Choice. I’ve just never been able to fin ish read ing it. Once, I got to page 312, a lit tle more than half way through the Vin tage paper back edi tion. But usu ally I stop much sooner, un able to face yet an other pro tracted scene of the par a noid schizo phrenic Na than Landau’s crazed be hav iors, vi cious di atribes, es ca lat ing threats, dev as tat ing exits. I know these “mys ter i ous vi cis si tudes of his mind and mood” are meant to be har row ingly dra matic, ac cu mu lat ing in ten sity and alarm as they fore shadow doom. They’re meant to make read ers feel what Nathan’s tar gets feel, to make us iden tify with Nathan’s abused, self-loathing Polish lover, So phie Zaw is towska, and the novel’s over whelmed nar ra tor, Stingo. But for me the scenes just lose edge and inter est as they recur two-three-four-five times, add ing lit tle about the char ac ters, whose re sponses re main es sen tially un changed. I get the point al ready. On and Off the Page 74 Not only Nathan’s erup tions but every thing vital in the novel is pitched to ex tremes, a tonal and dra matic fe ver ish ness that soon be comes wea ri some. Sophie’s past and present deg ra da tions, for ex am ple, are re lent lessly ex trav a gant. Pre sented in frag men tary flash backs, the war time loss of her par ents, hus band, and way of life in Cra cow; her ar rest and dep or ta tion by the Nazis; her ter rible ex pe ri ences at Ausch witz are all re lived in pro longed, close de tail. I under stand the in tent, Styron’s de ci sion to pro vide max i mum clar ity about such awful events, and to per son al ize the Hol o caust from the un fa mil iar angle of a non-Jewish vic tim. But the flash backs are slowly woven among scenes from the novel’s present set ting in which So phie en dures a hid e ous, pub lic, faint-inducing hu mil i a tion in the Brook lyn Col lege li brary fol lowed by a gro tesque New York sub way mol es ta tion fol lowed by ut terly in ca pac i tat ing ill ness and chiro prac tic mis han dling along with Nathan’s on go ing tor ments, Stingo’s soar ing lust, and ad o ra tion from her En glish teacher. The “beau ti ful body” she lugs around like a bur den, and which so many male char ac ters make de mands upon, pos sesses a “sick ish plas tic ity” and “sal low ness,” signs that it was “not wholly res cued from a ter rible cri sis.” Early on, Stingo in trudes upon her pri vacy and sees her tooth less face, fur ther shat ter ing Sophie’s fa cade of bal ance. Mean while, as Sty ron doles out the mis ery, Stingo is re peat edly brought to shame in his most sen si tive areas—his writ ing, sex ual crav ings, south ern her i tage, con flict ing needs for fel low ship and sol i tude—and even Stingo’s father must get beaten up dur ing a visit to New York. Styron’s com pound ing of ful some ca lam ity strains cred ibil ity, super sat u rates my tol er ance, numbs my re sponses, and, per haps most prob le matic, di min ishes what So phie had en dured under the Nazis by mak ing it just one more among all the awful things, a mat ter of scale. While my re sis tance to these scenes and dy nam ics es ca lates, so does the urge to skip yet an other di gres sive back grounder on the Nazis or on the his tory of the Old South. Stingo’s fa mil iar erotic [3.21...