Oh, FRANZEN. The beginning of this book was SO GOOD. I liked the main character! I liked the mystery of the Sunshine Project! I liked the journey toward learning about the main players and how they fit together. You had me, Franzen! And then it all fell apart. The book gets really bogged down with some relationship back story angst and it is painful and too long and ugh. And then there was a reveal of one of the main character's motivations, which I didn't like at all. No, no no. I like Franzen, I liked Freedom and his How to Be Alone collection, but this? No.

There are about 3 separate novels contained in this book. Additionally, my past reflections on other Franzen works I've read apply here. His endeavor to write something he'll call a "novel", but which is really 400 (ish) pages political ranting, never fails to lasso critical praise. However, it seems to me that in the day and age in which we live, there is no room in the literary canon for an individual who seeks in every publication to self-promote, to promulgate the idea that every female in existence must be a manipulative Borderline Personality Disorder patient, to and deify immoral, abusive, weak men. An NPR reviewer noted that this novel is characterized by "contempt for the reader" (ironic, on account of the reader in question is signing JF's royalty checks). I'd generalize that sentiment to contempt for humanity in general.

"Purity" is a classic Franzen novel: all of the characters are white and have upper-middle class white people issues. Even the "poorest" (economically speaking) characters in the novel are poor out of choice. But this is Franzen's world, and he illustrates it beautifully. He's a wealthy, white male intellectual whose traumas and tragedies seem to be quite internal and psychological. It's reminiscent of Kundera with a lot less sex.

The plot plays second-fiddle to the psychological profiles of the characters, who uniformly have issues with the mother figures in their lives. This all sounds like a criticism, but it was a pleasure to read. Understanding that Franzen's writing is more or less a mirror of his own personal relationships and psychology doesn't take away from the work, it simply puts it in context. He writes about people who are like him, for better and for worse.

PROSE: As good as you'll find anywhere. The writing is superb.

PLOT: Intriguing, if a bit disconnected from the reality of the Internet culture it attempts to portray (Franzen hates the Internet and doesn't use social media, and yet he's written a book about the internal workings of technocracy ...)

CHARACTERS: Not very diverse in either background or psychological hangups, but unique and quirky enough to stay interested in their plight.

VERDICT: 4/5 stars. The man's a great storyteller.

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impeccable character development. hard to put down. a great beach read. but in the end, I was left wondering what the overall message was supposed to be?

I listened to the audiobook. The narration was great, and the story was pretty good. The characters were well developed but the pace was more on the slow side than fast.

Compelling in places but unpleasant overall. None of the characters behave like real people. I was a fan of the Corrections and Freedom but not this.

Franzen constructs characters more real than any others I’ve read. Purity is no exception, but this book is different in other ways. It’s of broader scope, and perhaps more ambitious, as Franzen goes outside America in parts, delving into socialist East Germany. The Internet’s totalitarian quality (we can’t escape it) is a major theme, as explored by Andreas Wolf, the Julian Assange-like “do-gooder”. Longing for purity but continuously confronted by moral ambiguity, these characters go through a hell of a lot of muddiness. Anabel and Tom’s section was my favourite, Franzen adept at illustrating the toxicity of doomed relationships. Franzen’s best assets–complex characters, contemporary themes, and clever CLEVER writing­–are all present here, but this novel wasn’t as tight as his earlier work.