Sophie's Choice

After many, many weeks, I was finally able to finish reading Sophie's Choice. At first, I was intrigued with the novel's title and luckily, I saw a copy (second-hand, of course) for P25 only. I was wondering what was Sophie's choice. Another thing that made me curious was why the book was banned for sometime in many US libraries.

The novels has 16 chapters and the book I got has 626 pages (!). It was a bit too wordy for my taste with lots of minute descriptions of people, outfits, and environments. At the latter chapters, I skipped paragraphs to get into the dialogue parts.

The novel is about Sophie, a Polish immigrant who survived the Nazi concentration camps. There are flashbacks on what happened to her during those years, the multiple tragedies that she endured, and finally, the heart-wrenching decision that she had to make.

Halfway through the book, I was wondering why this "choice" hasn't appeared yet, or anything that suggests about it. It reminded me of Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" wherein the protagonist wasn't even mentioned until a few chapters into the book. I can't say what the Sophie's choice was since I don't want spoil it for those who would want to read the book.

In the future, I may read again Sophie's Choice to see details which I have missed and to understand it more. It's a lengthy read, I tell you, but worth it. It's a novel that makes you think, lets you learn about that horrible part of human history, and makes you hope that that war never happens again to your country, or to any other country.