Styron, William

(US, 1925– )

Styron's first novel, Lie Down in Darkness (1951), was an instant success. It tells the story of Peyton Loftis, a young woman driven to suicide by parental and personal pressures in the American South. The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967) had a controversial reception; although highly praised for its fictional re-creation of a slave rebellion, some critics found it relied heavily on stereotypes in portraying its black characters. Sophie's Choice (1979) has been his most successful novel, and was made into a film directed by Alan Pakula in 1982. The tale of Sophie, a Polish woman now living in the United States, gradually emerges to the narrator, Stingo, and he is horrified by what he learns of her experiences during the war in Auschwitz.

Philip Roth, Norman Mailer  SV