Purity

A Novel

By: Jonathan Franzen

Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Dylan Baker, Robert Petkoff

Length: 25 hrs

Publisher's summary

A magnum opus for our morally complex times from the author of Freedom.

Young Pip Tyler doesn't know who she is. She knows that her real name is Purity, that she's saddled with $130,000 in student debt, that she's squatting with anarchists in Oakland, and that her relationship with her mother - her only family - is hazardous. But she doesn't have a clue who her father is, why her mother chose to live as a recluse with an invented name, or how she'll ever have a normal life.

Enter the Germans. A glancing encounter with a German peace activist leads Pip to an internship in South America with The Sunlight Project, an organization that traffics in all the secrets of the world - including, Pip hopes, the secret of her origins. TSP is the brainchild of Andreas Wolf, a charismatic provocateur who rose to fame in the chaos following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now on the lam in Bolivia, Andreas is drawn to Pip for reasons she doesn't understand, and the intensity of her response to him upends her conventional ideas of right and wrong.

Purity is a grand story of youthful idealism, extreme fidelity, and murder. The author of The Corrections and Freedom has imagined a world of vividly original characters - Californians and East Germans, good parents and bad parents, journalists and leakers - and he follows their intertwining paths through landscapes as contemporary as the omnipresent Internet and as ancient as the war between the sexes. Purity is the most daring and penetrating book yet by one of the major writers of our time.

This audiobook includes a bonus conversation with the author.

©2015 Jonathan Franzen (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"In short, the book is a dream for any narrator who is itching to demonstrate his or her acting range, as Jenna Lamia, Dylan Baker, and Robert Petkoff handily do. Their performances are uniformly engaging and engrossing; together, they make the listening time fly by. Anyone weighing the potential return on investment of reading all 587 pages can safely turn the heavy lifting over to them." (AudioFile)

So many Jonathans...

"So many Jonathans. A Plague of literary Jonathans. If you read only the New York Times Book Review, you'd think it was the most common male name in America. Synonymous with talent, greatness. Ambition, vitality.”
- Jonathan Franzen, Purity

I went into this novel with the same trepidation I approach all of Jonathan Franzen's novels. I admire his talent. Generally like his fiction, style, and prose, but also end up worn out and wrung out after reading them. The Corrections and Freedom wore me out with the struggle. The Kampf of Kinder. His prose in those two novels was amazing. The characters were fascinating. The plot and narrative was kinda sluggish. It was like a nature hike through an overgrown wood. Lots to appreciate, but moving forward was kinda a pain in the ass.

His debut novel The Twenty-Seventh City had more narrative thrust, but the plot was a bit labyrinthine. It moved, but you just seemed a bit dazed after. Talent was there. Excess of talent really, but unbridled. Unrestrained.

'Purity' seems to give us a fsster-paced, more plot-driven family novel. So, some of the excesses of his last two novels seem to be trimmed. It also is less of a puzzle. Even the structure was clean and clear. So, while I think this might be Franzen's most enjoyable novel to-date, I'd still rank 'The Corrections' as his best (despite its flaws). If that doesn't make sense. It might just be me. I have a history of mixed signals. I think Pynchon's Mason and Dixon is his most enjoyable novel, even though I think Against the Day is a superior book. Anyway, I do digress.

Let's get back to the structure of this novel. Franzen gives hints at his plan with this novel with way he divides the novel. The novel is divided thus:

Section 1: Purity in Oakland; perspective = PIP, aka Purity Tyler
Section 2: The Republic of Bad Taste; perspective = Andreas Wolf
Section 3: Too Much Information; perspective = Leila Helou
Section 4: Moonglow Dairy: perspective = PIP, aka Purity Tyler
Section 5: [lelo9n8aOrd]: perspective = Tom Aberant
Section 6: The Killer; perspective = Andreas Wolf
Section 7: The Rain Comes; perspective = PIP, aka Purity Tyler

So, just incase the title doesn't give it away. This novel is Pip's. She is the actual beginning, middle and end of this story. But Andreas Wolf is the anti-hero, the counterpoint, the response to Pip's call. The ebb to her flow?

So here are my three main gripes about the book. My trinity of reasons for the missing star:

1. FRANZEN'S LIBS

Some of my old gripes about Franzen still exist. Sometimes, I can't decide if he exists in an obnoxious liberal fairy tale, or is just really good writing about liberal fairy tales. If I was a betting man, I'd lay a Billion he gets a kick out of all his blatent self-parody. Franzen seems über self-aware and seems to enjoy using Pip's mom to poke a bit of fun at the extreme end of the cartoonish, obnoxious, west coast liberal... but at other times Franzen himself seems to fully embody and gloat in this same cartoon. It wasn't obnoxious enough to distract me for long from the novel, and look I'm a pretty liberal guy myself, but sometimes Franzen's approach to capitalism, feminism, privacy, animal rights and global warming seems a bit clumsy. Perhaps, it might just all be me.

2. FRANZEN + SEX

Also, I could say the same thing about Franzen and sex. To be fair, most writers can't write about sex. They either take themselves way too seriously or not seriously enough. Franzen seems a bit more comfortable writing about spanking the monkey (perhaps that is the danger of being a writer) than sex between man and woman (or woman and woman, or man and man). But, that said, his awkward sex scenes were mostly ALL supposed to be awkward. These aren't healthy adult couples manifesting their love or desire for another person through physical contact. These are issues of power, control, obsession, oedipal longing, etc. So, like his writing about the liberal extremities, I can't quite decide if his writing about sex is perfectly awkward or just awkward. It is a bit like watching Andy Kaufman. You aren't sure when he is joking or if the joke is on you. He just doesn't see to have grown much past his Freedom days. Yes, you all know what I mean: "the hot, hungry microcosm of Patti's c#nt"*. See? I can't even write it or not write it without barfing and giggling at the same time.

3. FRANZEN & WOMEN

Sometimes when I read Franzen writing about women, or as a woman (read PIP), I'm reminded of that fantastic Jack Nicholson's quip from 'As Good As It Gets'. Except...AGAIN I'm not sure if Franzen is doing this on purpose. Perhaps, the whole reason I gave this book only four stars is the one star is all about my uncertainty. Is Franzen truly a d!ck or is he just playing with the idea of being a d!ck? I dunno. For sure he isn't folding to Jennifer Weiner's attack on his pr!ckish prose.

So, I guess that is what I'm asking. Is Franzen's prose pose about women, sex, liberals a put on or is it just Franzen being Franzen? I'm not sure. And to be fair. I'm not sure I really care. In a lot of ways it is like Mailer being Mailer. Did I ever want Norman Mailer to start wearing cardigans and sticking his pinky out while drinking mixed drinks? I liked Franzen's book. And while I've set out my three little gripes, they weren't THAT big. I don't want them to seem more than what they were. I'd probably find a couple reasons to bitch about Ecclesiastes too.

* From his previous novel 'Freedom'.

Glad I listened; equally glad it's over.

Purity is no Corrections. I loved The Corrections and will go back to it again and again. I loved the wit, the neurotic, yet self-aware characters. This novel is different. Far more complex, and an amazing intellectual achievement. I am glad I engaged with the book for this reason. But it is dark, and despite Franzen's assertion that it is a comic novel, it is nearly devoid of wit. It is totally charmless, and I grew increasingly depressed during the time I was listening. The characters are nearly all sick unhappy people who had terrible mothers and absent fathers (therefore, they cannot be whole). Further, he just gets women wrong. It's been said repeatedly about Franzen, and it's true. It is astonishingly arrogant for a male author to embody the mind of a young woman to this degree with such male gusto. It is utterly unimaginative that his conclusion is that woman want to give themselves sexually, always, to the most powerful man in the room. We just don't. In Franzen's world view, women are total victims of their hormones: our drive to reproduce and to do it with the most powerful man we can get. Men are victims too, but they are able, unlike women, to embrace reason and intellect.

But: Franzen. We have to get used to this side of his character if we want to experience his otherwise brilliant storytelling. He deeply dislikes women despite his constant protestations to the contrary. He does not understand women. He doesn't. He thinks he does and he thinks so with such imperious delusion that many people believe him. He is a victim, no doubt, of his own weird relationship with his mother and doesn't seem to grasp that it was a highly personal, idiosyncratic experience exclusive to him. It was not universal. Even his one glorious female character, 55-year-old career woman Leila, only pines for the child she never had, and is jealous of women who come into her partner Tom's life. Women are thus reduced by Franzen to non-intellectual sacks of hormones who cannot choose to not breed or hump the most powerful man in the room. That said, he does not like men either, but prefers them to women. Men can be reasonable despite the fact that they are also, all of them, driven to hump the most comely woman in the room. They can be reasonable despite the fact that they are all predators, it seems.

And yet: Franzen. We can't expect otherwise. It's like going to see a Tarantino movie and being shocked by self-satisfied dialog and grotesque violence.

This story, while complex and satisfying, suffers from melodrama. One of its set pieces is the alpha male Andres Wolf coming to grips with a murder. It is set up as a justifiable murder and he is set up as the sort of man who could intellectualize it out of his conscience, and yet there is a rippling overreaction to it that is entirely overwrought and ultimately unbelievable. Since this overreaction provides the ultimate denouement of the entire novel, the reader is left unsatisfied after having had such a massive slog through pathos.

In short, there is so much to respect, and much to be grateful isn't real.

Great book, annoying audio performance

Would you try another book from Jonathan Franzen and/or the narrators?

A great writer, complex characters, interesting way of developing them.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The female narrator is dramatizing the book, which is never a good idea. Her attempt at German accent comes out more French. This is an audio-book, not an audio play. The reading got so much in the way of the book that I stopped running it and went over to reading.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The book is good, I switched over to reading it on Kindle, the audio performance is what falls short.

Excellent condition of <br />Complex and compelling. <br />

One of the best books I have read. Characters were well developed and memorable. The story was tight and kept me on the edge.

A masterpiece of a novel

In his past novels, I've admired Franzen's prose, but found his characters not worth caring about. This novel takes Franzen to a new level. The work takes several plot threads stretching over three decades and three continents and brings them together into a very satisfying ending. But it is the characters--the characters!!--that make this a great work. These characters, while recognizably modern, have a depth and power that is worthy of Hardy or Zola. A real triumph.

Funny, deep, sad, annoying, contemporary,historical, wonderfully moving story

This book made me laugh and cry, feel disgusted and frustrated, made me think, consider, dream and wonder.

A cast of characters that fit so well into our global community, reminding us of the struggle we all have to be human, to do the right thing even when our inner selves plead for something other.

Like Jonathan Franzens other books, i was compelled to plough through 'Purity' while being totally absorbed in the characters and story lines.

Journalists are heroes

What did you love best about Purity?

I liked the ins and outs, backs and forths, of the plot. I liked the fact that if I lost track of some thread, I could be confident that another character's perspective would refresh and extend the thread. Franzen really does remind me of Charles Dickens.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Purity?

Listening while riding my bike, I heard Tom (I think he was 4 at the time) correct his mother's academic colleague on lie vs. lay. I burst out laughing.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

With so many significant characters, differentiating their physical voices is important, and these narrators are up to the task. I thought they were terrific.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Push-pull, repeat. (Someone else would have to choose the tag line.)

Any additional comments?

I didn't always enjoy this book, my first Franzen novel; I took breaks to regain perspective. I will read more Franzen and take more breaks. Also, as a newspaper junkie, I appreciated Franzen's advocacy for genuine investigative journalism.

Art that entertains but but does not edify

Clever but not profound. Prurient but not sensual. Sex without love. Love Without sex. Mothers without daughters; daughters without fathers. Obsession without inspiration. Questions with no answers. Answers without epiphanies. Facts devoid of truth. In sum: art that entertains but does not edify.

Classic Franzen

I started this book the day after it was released, after I listened to some lukewarm reviews on NPR and online. I loved The Corrections and Freedom, not an opinion shared by some of my friends.
I really enjoyed this novel. The characters were real, complex and compelling. The mothers were all tremendously flawed. That's OK. Franzen's choice.
One review balked at his character's presentation of feminism. I Find that sort of review self serving to the reviewer.
It is 25 hours of a really good story. Gave me lots to think about
!

Different from the corrections but equal to if not better

I found this story to be more suspenseful than the corrections and perhaps that's why I enjoyed it more. I found it equally engaging and the characters equally vivid and interesting to those in the corrections but perhaps in a somewhat more subtle way. I would definitely recommend it.