Scan barcode
A review by houyhnhnm64
Purity by Jonathan Franzen
3.0
There is a passage in Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel Purity where one of the characters, Leila, is speaking with her husband Charles, who is a writer, and I quote:
Leila: ‘Have you ever been tempted to leave a thought unspoken?’
Charles: ‘I’m a writer, baby. Voicing thought is what I’m poorly paid an uncharitably reviewed for.’
I must say, clocking at some 560 pages, Purity is a long novel and I wonder, could Franzen not have left one or two (or possibly more) thoughts unspoken? There are many digressions and particularly in the second half of the novel I sometimes had to summon quite a bit of will power to keep reading. The prominence of sex in this novel is quite striking, and I still wonder what purpose it serves. I read an interview with Franzen the other day, in which he states it is meant to be comical. Frankly (and I claim to have a sense of humour) I did not so much as smile once.
The story revolves around a young woman, Pip Tyler, whose real name is Purity. She is the daughter of a woman named Anabel, who is the heir of a multi-billion company owner and a man named Tom Aberant. When Tom and Anabel get married their ‘joint plan was to be poor and obscure and pure’. Eventually, Tom and Anabel break up. In the mean time Tom has met Andreas Wolf, an East-German man who in the course of the years becomes a sort of Snowden/Assange - leaking government secrets on the internet.
Both Anabel and Andreas Wolf, in different ways, are very disturbed and strange persons. Each in their respective modes, they can be said to strive for purity. Annabel by refusing her father’s billions, Andreas by exposing the lies and secrets of states. But the choices both Anabel and Andreas make, leave deep traces. Anabel has never told her daughter who her father is, and has lived all her live in a simple cabin. One of the most intriguing questions the book raises, is when a friend of Pip aks her: ‘What personal choice did your mother ever give up for you?’ How far indeed, can a parent go in shaping her or his own life, without giving heed to the consequences for the offspring she/he decided to have? What does it entail to be pure?
Franzen has great psychological insight, and yet he uses it very differently from writers such as Michael Cunningham or Ian McEwan. He doesn’t imply, but he explains. The ending, where everything - well, not everything, but still, nearly everything - is nicely resolved, is Hollywoodian. I once heard someone say that the music of The Rolling Stones stands to that of The Beatles as a peasant’s stew to a gourmet chef’s dinner. Well, in this sense, Franzen is The Rolling Stones, and the likes of Cunningham are The Beatles. I have always been more of a Beatles fan.
All in all, as far as I am concerned, a big book, but not a great book. Still, the story - though implausible - is entertaining, and there is a long and impressive murder scene that I believe will stay with me for a long time yet.
Leila: ‘Have you ever been tempted to leave a thought unspoken?’
Charles: ‘I’m a writer, baby. Voicing thought is what I’m poorly paid an uncharitably reviewed for.’
I must say, clocking at some 560 pages, Purity is a long novel and I wonder, could Franzen not have left one or two (or possibly more) thoughts unspoken? There are many digressions and particularly in the second half of the novel I sometimes had to summon quite a bit of will power to keep reading. The prominence of sex in this novel is quite striking, and I still wonder what purpose it serves. I read an interview with Franzen the other day, in which he states it is meant to be comical. Frankly (and I claim to have a sense of humour) I did not so much as smile once.
The story revolves around a young woman, Pip Tyler, whose real name is Purity. She is the daughter of a woman named Anabel, who is the heir of a multi-billion company owner and a man named Tom Aberant. When Tom and Anabel get married their ‘joint plan was to be poor and obscure and pure’. Eventually, Tom and Anabel break up. In the mean time Tom has met Andreas Wolf, an East-German man who in the course of the years becomes a sort of Snowden/Assange - leaking government secrets on the internet.
Both Anabel and Andreas Wolf, in different ways, are very disturbed and strange persons. Each in their respective modes, they can be said to strive for purity. Annabel by refusing her father’s billions, Andreas by exposing the lies and secrets of states. But the choices both Anabel and Andreas make, leave deep traces. Anabel has never told her daughter who her father is, and has lived all her live in a simple cabin. One of the most intriguing questions the book raises, is when a friend of Pip aks her: ‘What personal choice did your mother ever give up for you?’ How far indeed, can a parent go in shaping her or his own life, without giving heed to the consequences for the offspring she/he decided to have? What does it entail to be pure?
Franzen has great psychological insight, and yet he uses it very differently from writers such as Michael Cunningham or Ian McEwan. He doesn’t imply, but he explains. The ending, where everything - well, not everything, but still, nearly everything - is nicely resolved, is Hollywoodian. I once heard someone say that the music of The Rolling Stones stands to that of The Beatles as a peasant’s stew to a gourmet chef’s dinner. Well, in this sense, Franzen is The Rolling Stones, and the likes of Cunningham are The Beatles. I have always been more of a Beatles fan.
All in all, as far as I am concerned, a big book, but not a great book. Still, the story - though implausible - is entertaining, and there is a long and impressive murder scene that I believe will stay with me for a long time yet.