THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 12 Friday, September 1, -1919 Styron's 'Sophie's Choice' By ALBERT ROSEN (Editor's note: Albert Rosen is the head of the English department at Chadsey High School in LOWEST PRICES Cassette Dictating Transcribing Machines 342-7801 Detroit and the past commander of the De- partment of Michigan, Jewish War Veterans.) If William Styron never writes another word, he can rest assured that in "Sophie's Choice" (Random House) he has written a great American novel if not the great American novel. Contained within its 515 THIS YEAR SAY iNTIW iTTASS WITH TREES FOR ISRAEL IT'S A WONDERFUL / WAY TO /1 HONOR SOMEONE SPECIAL! R ees r 0."4. Ls- R , ec t -1 E t Show how much you care by planting trees in Israel as a way of saying Happy New Year. JNF will plant trees ($3.00 each) in the name of your friends and relatives and mail them a beautiful New Year's certificate in your name. MAIL OR PHONE YOUR ORDERS.— , WE WILL DO THE REST KEREN KAYEMETH LEISRAEL JEWISH NATIONAL FUND 27308 Southfield Rd. Southfield, MI 48076 557-6644 A Great Novel Generally, for Jews two interweaving themes: the narrator's story which is really Styron's un- abashedly revealed, though not absolutely delineated, autobiography, and of greater interest to a Jewish reader, an unusual tale of the Holocaust. It is in the latter that Styron reveals the firm grip he has on his craft. He holds a mirror up to life and makes life seem bigger than it is. Styron's aspiration to be- come a great novelist in the Southern literary tradition a la Faulkner is a recurrent theme throughout the book and attests to his belief in himself even as a young man that he possessed the potential to become a great writer. Time has proven him correct. Yet, not once does his literary com- mentary seem to intrude upon the novel's main thrust; rather it helps to further tighten and com- press the impact of the "Final Solution" though through the suffering of a Christian, a group whom Elie- Wiesel forever re- minds the world did share in the horror as did his own coreligionists, though not to the same degree. Styron admits that Sophie, the heroine of the novel, never really existed, but is an elaboration of a girl who lived in the apart- ment above him one sum- mer in Brooklyn in 1947. Her ravaging beauty made such a profound impression upon him that she became the model for Sophie as we come to know her. Styron did, however, augment his view of her as a concentra- tion camp victim by visiting Poland and reading assidu- ously about Auschwitz through documents and ac- counts by survivors and vic- tims. In fact, his char- acterizations of Sophie and Rudolph Hoss, the com- mandant at Auschwitz, who is also a creation of Styron's imagination, but based on the real commandant's autobiography, take on a chilling realism which leaves the reader numb about a bestiality that be- comes almost documentary pages are . *womii ■ Immir Discussion About . UNITED STATES and the 'PALESTINIANS' by PROF. MICHAEL DIRSSMAN, LEWIS S. GROSSMAN, faculty, Macomb Community College, Political Science Dept. PAST President, Detroit Jewish Community Council and past National Vice President American Jewish Committee URI SEGAL, PROF. LEON H. WARSHAY , past President, Detroit Israeli Student Association SIDNEY SILVERMAN, ' faculty Wayne State University, Sociology Dept. Moderator, President ZOD CoMe and Join the Discussion of America's Mideast Policy - MONDAY, SEPT. 10 — 8 P.M. . ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, DETROIT DISTRICT 18451 West 10 Mile Rd., Southfield The Public Is Invited in its litany. The difference here is that Styron succeeds in re- vealing Sophie's experi- ences in the camp, and the aftermath, as a personal re- velation of Nazi evil and thus comprehendible as an inhuman act. One poignant example occurs when the box cars discharge their wretched cargo upon the platform. Sophie tightly holds her two children so as to somehow ensure their safety as the inevitable selection process begins. SS Doctor Hauptsturmfuhrer Fritz Jemand von 'Niemand's demeanor (a- gain, no such person actu- ally existed) prompts Sophie to blurt out in hope- ful despair that neither she nor her children are Jewish; that the latter are racially pure; in fact, speak German fluently. She is Christian, a devout Catholic. Despite his lack of total sobriety, the doctor turns his full gaze upon Sophie and thickly murmurs, "So you believe in Christ the Redeemer? ... (el- lipses ours) Did He not say, 'Suffer the little chil- dren to come unto Me'?" Then with a finality of tone that drives her to the edge of madness, in- structs her to choose which child will remain and which will die. Else both children will join the Jews in the gas cham- bers. In recounting the inci- dent to Stingo, the nar- rator's nickname at 22, Sophie admits that in all the years since the incident, she had never been able to ar- ticulate the heart-breaking words she cried out in reply, "Take my little girl." Osten- sibly, the boy is saved by being sent to Lebensborn; however, she never sees him again. Sophie's lover is Nathan Landau, a Jew. It is through their turbulent, tumultuous and tormented relationship that the full meaning of the title comes through. Her choice, final as it becomes, is tied inexorably to Nathan, a literary creation of such complexity as to defy ordi- nary understanding. He is mad, absolutely, to- tally mad. Yet, his insanity is intermittent and when he is rational his charm, bril- liance, and wit sweep away any apprehensions Sophie or Stingo may occasionally harbor. Nathan's Jewishness is not limited to his ethnic- ity. This in itself would be a cheap ploy. What Sty- ron does is to have Nathan exemplify Jewish concern about camp sur- vivors, particularly non-Jews. What were the circumstances of their survival? So when he succumbs to one of his at- tacks, he voices his sus- picion about her sexual relationships with Nazi personnel or possible bkrayal of other pris- oners. Styron places vile accusations in Nathan's mouth. Sophie's response is one of total love, even unto death. Complimenting this barest of plot is the clarity and precision of Styron's language. Words, phrases and sentences meld into one another in perfect harmony. Some examples: tattoos: "I will always remember Sophie's tattoo. That nasty little excrescence, attached like a ridge of minute bruised toothbites to her forearm was the single de- tail of her appearance which — on the night I first saw her at the Pink Palace — instantly conveyed to my mind the mistaken idea that she was a Jew. But if I had known then of the metamorphosis which the camp underwent during the terrible fortnight I have dwelt upon, I would have understood that the tattoo had an important and direct connection with Sophie's being branded like. a Jew though she herself was not Jewish." Parents: "Loathing her father now, loathing his lackey — her husband — almost as much, Sophie would slip by their murmur- ing shapes in the house hallway as the Professor, suavely tailored in his frock coat, his glamorous graying locks beautifully barbered and fragrant of Kol- nichwasser, prepared to sally forth on morning supplicatory rounds. But he must not have washed his scalp. She recalled the dan- druff on his splendid shoul- ders. His murmurings com- bined fretfulness and hope. His voice had an odd hiss." Snoring: "The wind rush- ing through my father's de- viated septum had become a wild jungle rhapsody — monkey cries, parrot yawps, pachydermous trumpet- ings." Styron seems to prefer the first person tech- nique. As a result, his characters reflect a di- rectness of manner that makes them seem au- thentic and, therefore, believable. Also, this mode makes for more enjoyable reading be- cause one does have to contend with diversions or digressions which in- trospective or heavily de- scriptive writing is prone to do. The setting is Brooklyn. For readers why may have emigrated from there, familiar names and places will evoke a wave of nostal- gia bringing the novel's im- pact even closer to the heart: Church Avenue, Prospect Park, Flatbush Avenue, BMT, Coney Island — forever Brooklyn. The novel ends with a line of Styron's poetry reminis- cent of John Donne. Stingo is lying on the beach at Coney Island in the late evening after having attended the funeral of his two friends. Crying himself into exhaustion, he falls into a deeply-troubled sleep. He concludes, "When I awoke it was early morn- ing. I lay looking straight up at the blue-green sky with its translucent shawl of mist; like a tiny orb of crystal, solitary and serene, Venus shone through the haze above the quiet ocean. I heard children chattering nearby. I stirred. `Izzy, he's awake!"G'wan, yah mutha's mustache!' Blessing my resur- rection, I realized that the two children had covered me with sand, protec- tively, and that I lay as safe as a mummy beneath this fine, enveloping overcoat. It was then that in my mind I inscribed the words: `Neath cold sand I dreamed of death/but woke at dawn to see/in glory, the bright, the morning star.' " This was not judgment day — only morning. Morn- ing: excellent and fair. 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