"The Life and Death of Sophie Stark"

“The Life and Death of Sophie Stark”

Written by Anna North

Review written by Diana Iozzia

            “The Life and Death of Sophie Stark” was a very surprising book in the best possible way. When beginning this book, I soon realized the premise had sent me off in the wrong direction. I was expecting a book that was “thriller-paced, with mysteries revealed at every turn”. This is not quite a mystery, but perhaps a story about a mysterious person. This was the scope of a woman’s career, from awkward college age to awkward late 20s. Sophie Stark was / is an enigma. We read through the perspectives of six different characters that knew her, as she grew to obscure fame, but fame all the less. We also wonder as the years pass by how she will eventually die. That’s not a spoiler, it’s in the title, you see.

            Sophie Stark was a filmmaker. We see her through the eyes of others, as she starts out, just a young girl with a camera. This book is very reminiscent of many stories I’ve read before. It has the childlike and nostalgic but bittersweet atmosphere of books like “Lolita” and “The Virgin Suicides”. All three books have a young female characters who are mature and understand more about the world than we give most adolescents and teens credit for. Also, we occasionally have very fun scenes but interspersed with darker ones. Sophie behaves in a manner that most adults would consider wise, but her emotions often reflect a child trapped in an adult’s body. This creates a strange, puzzling character for us.

            We read about her through the words of:

Allison, her friend and actress

Robbie, Sophie’s brother,

Ben, a film critic,

Jacob, an actor, then her husband

Daniel, her first boyfriend

George, a producer

            Each character unwinds a time they spent with Sophie, sometimes interweaving with other characters’ stories as well. It’s a great reading experience to see the impact on others’ lives. Sophie was a bit of a messy tornado, fortunately and unfortunately affecting others on her path. She was obscure, but enchanting and peculiarly relatable. We readers want to know her, want to be around her. She seems like an incredible friend, but one who may ruin everything for you.

            I enjoy Anna North’s writing. Sophie’s speech is blunt, precise. She should not be a likable character, but we want to befriend or love her. The voice and the tone of the story in general is fantastic and ethereal. The author tells her story in a very realistic fashion, hardly ever implementing similes or metaphors. Each character describes Sophie in a different way: how she smells, how her voice sounds, how maddeningly enthralling she is. We often find characters like this in films like “500 Days of Summer”, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, “Definitely, Maybe”, and “Once”. We have stranger female characters who boys fall crazily for, creating a stereotype known as the “manic pixie dream girl”. Sophie has all the elements of being one of these characters, but where other stories go wrong, Anna North diverges. Anna North breathes life into this seemingly unrealistic character.

            This is a book I had never heard about, but this book deserves more. Anna North created an indelicate but delicate character who feels real but also imaginary. If you just blinked, Sophie would vanish. I think this gem of a book should be known about, but maybe isn’t that the point of this story? Perhaps if something is not understood or known by all, the result is a great marvel.