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Purity Paperback – 22 August 2016
Jonathan Franzen (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Pip Tyler doesn’t know who she is. She knows that her real name is Purity, that she’s saddled with student debt and a reclusive mother, but there are few clues as to who her father is or how she’ll ever have a normal life. Then she meets Andreas Wolf – internet outlaw, charismatic provocateur, a man who deals in secrets and might just be able to help her solve the mystery of her origins.
- Print length576 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publisher4th Estate GB
- Publication date22 August 2016
- Dimensions12.9 x 3.7 x 19.8 cm
- ISBN-100007532784
- ISBN-13978-0007532780
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Product description
Review
‘Dazzling’ Guardian
‘Furiously funny’ Telegraph
‘Superbly readable, it is the work of a novelist at the height of his powers … This new work by an American master of realism has novelistic pleasures in abundance’ Sunday Times
‘Purity makes the most compelling reading, and Franzen reveals himself here to be even more a master than ever’ Evening Standard
‘It has kept me up every night for a week, and now that I’m done, I’ll miss its wit, its messed-up characters and its emotional complexity’ Financial Times
‘Franzen’s most fleet-footed, least self-conscious and most intimate novel yet … Franzen has added a new octave to his voice’ New York Times
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : 4th Estate GB (22 August 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 576 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0007532784
- ISBN-13 : 978-0007532780
- Dimensions : 12.9 x 3.7 x 19.8 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 185,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 2,328 in Men's Adventure Fiction
- 5,624 in War & Military Action Fiction (Books)
- 6,225 in War Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Jonathan Franzen is the author of five novels--Purity, Freedom, The Corrections, The Twenty-Seventh City, and Strong Motion--and five works of nonfiction and translation, including Farther Away, How to Be Alone, and The Discomfort Zone, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the German Akademie der Kunste, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from Australia
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As expected, I found the first quarter to be exceptionally good - loved it. But then, I went into a complete about-turn - and hated the next third.
You do confuse me. But then the last third you brought me back from the brink.
Apart from finding that you did not write at all well in Pip's voice for this last third - I plodded on - completed the book and can recommend that others readers come on board and find their own 'choose your own adventure'.
This is a very contemporary novel and should be read, but is it up to Franzen's past glories? I think not.
Top reviews from other countries

It is pretty well written and often captivating and thought provoking at times, though it does seem to go a little deep to the point where it feels like a slog to get through those heavy sections... maybe that says more about me than the book though!
The book itself is a nice read most of the time but does have some somewhat implausible characters resulting in the plot becoming unusual and almost unbelievable at times. Yes, I am aware it is a work of fiction, I just like that fiction to have some semblance in reality which I think helps to keeps me on the hook.
The characters are at times over the top but still feel unfulfilling when it comes to depth and development, leaving a feeling that a lighter touch might sometimes be better when getting into the more intense psychological nature of the protagonists, while other characters could do with more than a very basic, cursory outline. The story is alluring until midway through when the key plot twist is revealed, in my opinion, a little too early... from there, the story drifts into monotonous, surface scratching insights which combined with a very predictable chain of events mean that the end of the book draws to a lackluster finish. I'm not sure whether the quality of the writing has suffered in comparison to his other books, or whether the attempt at something different has led to a decent book, but something which could have been a lot better.
All in all an enjoyable book and I would recommend it, but it's not on the same level as Freedom or The Corrections... which I would highly recommend reading if you enjoyed this book or if you haven't read it yet but are looking for something similar. Unrelatable and stereotyped characters combined with a story with not so much purpose as it has brashness, make it a far cry from his other works which resonated much more with me. Hopefully this will be a platform for Franzen to create more like this, but with a more fine tuned approach. Recommended!
Thanks for reading my review!

I would read it again one day: but there are so many books I haven’t yet read once!

If you enjoyed "Freedom" you won't be disappointed with Purity. Its a brilliant read.

Why not 5 stars? It could have been shorter!
