ביקורת ספרותית על האי של סופייה מאת ויקטוריה היסלופ
ספר טוב

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if it weren't for the picture on the cover, i wouldn't have bothered to open that book. i can still picture it in my mind, the back of a girl standing by an open window looking longingly outside at a colorful green land. like all the happiness is on a faraway land out there, all you have to do is to get through the ocean to the other side of the land, to simply leave that glum, grey, sad island.
i could truly empathize with her. in some way we all live in an island, maybe not all the time but we create our own shield of privacy, choosing carefully the people we feel comfortable to share things with.
but what if the island becomes a prison? It’s a little bit ironic when you think about it, since we are the guards protecting that island. Prisoners of our own fears.
Well, of course when I picked up that book I had my own meanings in mind, but I was swept away by a new fascinating story…

For a start, Sophia is a middle aged mysterious mother who lives with her family in London. Her daughter Alexei is at the end of a breakup with her boyfriend, deciding to go seek some answers about herself by exploring her mother's past, which happens to be in Greece. The story takes you to the time when there was no cure to leprosy, at that time it was a cruel death sentence. Since leprosy is a highly contagious disease, people were shipped away to a near by island to spend the rest of their "short" lives. In other words the island of the dying living. War world 2 was happening in the background so the economy was pretty bad.

When I finally understood what had happen to Sophia I was a bit disappointed, I could even feel a shred of anger towards her, but I kept reading. The story was interesting and I decided not to let Sophia ruin it for me. The anger was building up in me and by the time I finished the book and closed the cover, there was no shred of empathy! I was angry!
Stupid story! Stupid girl!
But still, I couldn’t shake it off.. days gone by and the story still lived inside me..
When the days became weeks I decided to dig in deeper.
Why is it I couldn’t shake it off?
What is it about Sophia?

I think my heart was crying for Maria, Sophia's aunt. Her character was so thoughtful and considerate you couldn’t do anything but root for her. I don’t think her name is just a coincidence, She truly was a saint. So naturally I was judging Sophia too harsh.
Sophia was simply ashamed of herself, much like I was ashamed of me… we both created this imaginative island to hide in. our island is not in Greece, it's everywhere.. our leprosy is not showing..
to be honest I think I was upset about Maria's death, which means it was too late for Sophia.. maybe its not too late for me?

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