Love the book, not the man behind it: Purity

Purity, Jonathan Franzen

Fast Facts

• An engrossing, literary, suspenseful novel by an acclaimed author that many love to hate
• Purity "Pip" Tyler's search to find her father, crossed with an Assange/Snowden composite, mixed with an international murder mystery, with scenes reminiscent of Dexter and The Secret History and Crime and Punishment 
• 576 pages
• Hard to say whether I loved Purity as much as Freedom or The Corrections, but I pre-ordered this and based on how quickly I burned through it and enjoyed it, I will continue to pre-order whatever novel Franzen comes out with next
• Fast page-turner with great, complex, screwed-up, "real" characters and a well-paced plot
• Too much ridiculous sex and masturbation - one of my only critiques
• Worth the hype and the time investment 

Love the Book, Not the Man Behind It

I am a Franzen novel fan. That's not to say I am a Franzen fan, because from any interview I've read or listened to with him, he sounds boring, snobby or egotistical, and unlike many novelists, I don't think I'd want to sit down with him for a cup of coffee.  Nor do I think I would want to sit down with many of his screwed up characters for a cup of coffee, because he often makes them blatantly unlikeable.

But I have to give the devil his due - Jonathan Franzen know how to tell a great, captivating story. Say what you will about the man or his chosen subjects, about his weird birding obsession or his preoccupation with sex, Franzen is a terrific writer.  The kind of writer who makes you miss your train stop on multiple occasions because you were just so riveted.

I loved Purity, and am left with a similar feeling to the one I had about Freedom, where I'm just so glad that Franzen and his skill for weaving a narrative exists, despite how unpleasant his characters can be at times.  I vaguely recall loving The Corrections this much, too, though enough years have passed since I read it that I can barely remember the plot points.

Some Plot, Without Giving Too Much Away 

Heroine Pip, an early-twenty-something raised by a single mother, living in a hipster share house in Oakland, and working at a soulless company that uses fear of climate change to capitalize on taxpayer credits, is looking for love and becoming a grownup and searching for her unidentified father.  Opportunity presents itself to Pip in the form of Andreas Wolf, a charismatic German who uses Snowden-Assange-type Internet leaks and investigations to rise to prominent celebrity.

To share more would take away some of the fun of diving into this book.  Suffice it to say that the paternal search is peppered with intrigue, sex, murder, and tales from California, East Germany, Bolivia, Denver, and Texas that are all deliciously connected.

Far-Fetched Elements, Anchored by Real Relationships

Terry Gross asked Franzen about the way he tackles relationships in his novels, and some of the realities of the human condition that he expresses so well, despite never having experienced them personally.

For example, the conversations between Pip and her mother felt so true and so raw that I kept getting a lump in my throat.  How does this middle-aged, childless male bird watcher seem know or feel all the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship?  How did Clelia's escape from East Germany and ultimate disappointment with her American savior feel so striking?  The electricity and toxicity of Anabel and Tom felt particularly bitter and charged - Franzen, apparently a divorcee, had personal material to draw on for at least this relationship, and also for the healthier partnership that followed.

These relationships and emotions keep a grounded feeling of reality, even when other elements stretch the bounds of imagination.  Slate did a funny spoiler recap ranking some of the sex scenes in the novel by their plausibility.  These scenes are only the tip of the iceberg on plot points that are fantastical, related to the Bolivian Sunlight Project, to stealing files from the Stasi and keeping a murder file under wraps, to the billion dollar disappeared heiress, to a suicide that looks like murder, to identities hidden for decades, to stolen fake nuclear weapons, and more.

Caveat 

Aside from some of the more off-the-wall, unbelievable parts of the story, I have one more caveat - while I enjoyed almost all of the latest Franzen tome, I have to say that this author really is a dirty old man.  I have never read a book so obsessed with masturbation.  One character can only orgasm during the full moon.  Another character's self-pleasuring seems to take up 50 pages, culminating in that character jumping off a low bridge in order to break an ankle so as to - yes - open up even more time for masturbation.  That's pretty funny, but at a certain point, enough is enough.  The fixation detracted from an otherwise high-brow, intellectual, interesting and fun book not just by getting too smutty and uncomfortable, but by being repetitive and boring.

A Definite Recommendation

What I want from a novel is an enthralling story with extraordinary elements, but with characters who feel like real, empathetic, and at times likable people who you can root for on their paths to achieving their hopes and goals.  I rooted for Pip and Leila and Tom, and was fascinated by the chance to be in Andreas' brain, uncomfortable though that was. 

There was enough mystery to keep me hooked, and Franzen's mastery of language and narrative are fairly unparalleled.  My complaints were minor given that overall, this is a novel that is truly entertaining, with just the right amount of challenge and emotional heft.