I gasped out loud when I read the news this morning. I suppose it's not a shock. He was 81. Before I read the obit, I feared that he would have committed suicide. But it appears that he died from pneumonia, and general weakening from old age.
The obituary in the Times is extensive, respectful, and very informative. I didn't know a lot of his story, although I have read most of his books. He's not an easy writer. He never takes the easy way. He has many detractors. His book Confessions of Nat Turner will probably be held against him in certain circles forever (oh, whatEVER). As well as Sophie's Choice - which, while obviously highly praised and made into this major successful movie - also has its detractors. But vengeance was his - at least in the form of success. Pulitzer Prizes, Book Awards galore. He was a heavy-hitter, one of the few in the current-day pantheon. His books were anticipated, waited for. Many people disliked them. Hardly anybody was indifferent. I read Confessions - a long time ago - and I also read Sophie's Choice - I read that one when I was in high school, and I read it after I saw the movie - which pretty much made such a deep impression on me that it took weeks to regain my balance. I had to read the book. The book is much darker than the film - and also - it is incredibly graphic, sexually. I mean, you get that sense in the film - how Sophie tries to narcotize herself through sex - it's a drug, to forget, to lose herself ... and I had never read such explicit scenes. I was, like, 15 or something. But the movie had had such an impact that I couldn't let it go, and I plowed through that dark, wrenching, unforgiving, TERRIBLE book - because I needed to still be in that place, I couldn't go back to who I was before I met Sophie. Not yet, anyway.
And then - many years later - in response to Primo Levi's suicide - which many people were outraged by (this was a man who survived Auschwitz ... how DARE he take his own life??) - William Styron wrote a small book about his own depression (which, I agree with Styron - is completely the wrong word for the actual phenomenon. He prefers "brainstorm".) But anyway, Styron was angry at what he saw as a total lack of understanding at what depression actually WAS - and to take your own life, as Mr. Levi had done, was a completely personal decision, and only someone who had actually experienced a "brainstorm" could understand. Otherwise, shut the hell up. His book - called Darkness Visible is, in my estimation, one of the most accurate and piercing descriptions of the EXPERIENCE of depression in existence. I know there are many other books and memoirs out there about being depressed, blah blah ... but if you're interested in that kind of literature, then THIS is the book to read. It's short, it started as an op-ed column, written in response and protest to the general TONE of all of the obituaries for Mr. Levi. And it generated such a storm of positive response - people writing in saying, "This is EXACTLY what it feels like ..." - that he expanded it into a lecture - which then was published in book-form.
And what a book it is. What a gift. It's not an easy read. He describes it so well that at one point I did think, "I certainly would not blame you, sir, if you chose to end this agony."
Anyway, a marvelous writer - thinker - speaker. A tempestuous man, who stood strong against his many critics. Who wrote what he wanted to write. Who didn't bend to political correctness, or to bullying from those who said he, a white man, could NEVER write from the perspective of a black man ... or a female Polish Holocaust survivor ... or whatever. You name it. He got it with almost every book he wrote. Even his depression memoir got criticized from the usual suspects - who said: I know what depression REALLY is. Mr. Styron is just dabbling. Something in him rubbed people the wrong way.
But he could write. He really could.
I had a moment of deep sadness this morning, realizing that he was gone.
Rest in peace.
(Again, here's the obituary.)
And here's a post with a lot of Styron links.
Beautiful thoughts here. I totally agree.
And this elegy brought tears to my eyes.
Posted by sheilaWhen I read Sophie's Choice, I hadn't seen the movie and I knew nothing, really, about the story. I didn't know what her "choice" was. And it was such a shocking painful book, but beautifully written. It has stayed with me. I've read a few of his other books (Lie Down in Darkness and Set This House on Fire) but Sophie is the book (and character) that will always stay with me. Oh, this is sad news.
Posted by: Erik at November 2, 2006 11:59 AMI remember reading the book (and of course I knew the whole story, having just seen the film) - and I was basically just seeing Meryl Streep before my eyes, etc. So I think I need to read it again, to experience it a bit fresher, if you know what I mean.
But about the choice:
I remember that scene when suddenly it becomes clear what the damn title of the film refers to, what her choice will actually be ... I had assumed that it would be between the two men ... that that's what she would have to choose ... but then came that scene.
I thought I wouldn't make it through the scene it was so painful to watch.
Sophie. Unforgettable character, you're right.
Posted by: red at November 2, 2006 12:07 PMI think I was 16 when I read the book, it was definitely in high school. My mom had read it and she'd probably seen the movie too--and I remember as I was reading the book, Sophie would do something, and I kept asking my mom: hey, x just happened, was THAT the choice? (Because of the damn title, I just kept looking for "the choice.") And my mom would say, "oh, you'll KNOW when she has to make her choice, you won't have to ask me. You'll Know." And I was like, whatever, and I kept reading, and got swept away in all of the torrid sex and all of the flashbacks...but I didn't see it coming, I didn't suspect, I didn't know. And then when I got to that scene (I'm getting the chills right now just thinking about it), I remember exactly where I was, I was lying on the old gray sofa we had in our living room, devouring the book, and I got to that scene and suddenly you start to realize what's happening and...oh my god, it wrecked me. I sat there and cried and could not put the book down, felt like I had to finish it in that sitting because I could not sit with that moment, I had to get away from that moment, I had to finish the book right then, I could not let that moment stew. So I finished the book and I went to my mom and told her, "yeah, I don't need to ask you, I know what the choice was."
I was equally devestated when I saw the film, but I'm glad I read the book first. Because the shock of that revelation took my breath away and I gotta give it to Styron for setting us up for that crazy awful moment.
Posted by: Erik at November 2, 2006 12:32 PMWow, Erik ... you described that so well. It's this dawning horror moment ... horror. No other word. It's unBEARABLE to contemplate.
But there it is.
And every time I would go over that passage in the book - or see that film - I wish it would come out differently. I wish that she would just ... refuse to make a choice. I wish it would turn out differently.
Harrowing stuff.
Posted by: red at November 2, 2006 12:35 PMThe term gut-wrenching is used a lot, but I have rarely had my gut wrenched as it was when I first read Sophie's Choice. I was physically wounded by THAT scene, and that was before I became a father. Your use of "harrowing" is appropriate. I am the kind of reader who submerges myself in a good read. It took me a while to get over Sophie's Choice. Even when I saw the movie, and I knew what was coming, I felt my emotions swirling up in me as that scene approached. It's ridiculous, but I don't even like to think about it, or the fact that real humans were forced to make such decisions. It's similiar to my thoughts about those who jumped on 9/11. I don't ever want to forget that reality was forced on them, but to think about it too often, or too deeply, is soul-damaging.
Posted by: DBW at November 2, 2006 2:07 PMI didn't realize Darkness Visible started as a response to Levi's death--I'll have to read that one again.
I always loved Sophie's Choice for the narrator, Stingo--just when I thought I could never read another book narrated by a young man who went to New York to be a novelist, I read this one, and I think Styron was the only one to pull it off. And it's the narrator's young but innocent love of Sophie, of his desire to rescue her, that got to me as well.
Anyway, I'm sort of glad I was never aware of Styron's detractors--I have only read his work in the past three years and in something of a vacuum. One of the few advantages for discovering books like that on the shelves of a humble public library out in the Western Provinces.
Posted by: Aaron at November 2, 2006 8:32 PMI have never read Sophie's Choice or seen the movie, but I know what "the choice" is, because my best friend told me a long time ago. And I swear to God, just knowing what it is -- without having read the episode described in the novel or seen it depicted on screen or knowing, really, anything else about the story -- is an enormous burden to me. It's one of those things that, if it creeps into my consciousness, will keep me up hours at night weeping. Has done so many times. It completely haunts me. I think that if I actually read the novel, my heart would be shattered beyond recovery.
Posted by: Another Sheila at November 3, 2006 2:52 PMSheila -
I know. It's just haunting. Horrible to contemplate.
:(
Posted by: red at November 3, 2006 3:47 PM