Review of Jonathan Franzen’s Purity.

Although this blog is mainly about science fiction, I sometimes read non-genre literature to see what the other side is up to. Jonathon Franzen is one of my favourite non-genre authors. This is a review of Purity, the fourth of his novels that I have read.

Purity’s plot revolves around secrets, with one secret being the main character’s search for the identity of her father and another about a cover-up of a murder. The novel follows four main characters: Purity, Andreas Wolf, Tom and Leila. Purity is a recent university graduate in search of a journalism job. She was raised by a controlling but loving mother who always got her way and would argue for hours about the most trivial matters. Andreas Wolf is modelled on Julian Assange, complete with his version of Wikileaks. Wolf was raised in East Germany and was a reluctant escapee when the wall came down, as East Germany was a seemingly perfect place to keep his secrets. Tom is the owner and editor of an investigative journal, while Leila is a hard-nosed reporter who works for Tom. They are lovers, even though she is married.

When Wolf offers Purity a job that requires her to relocate to his secret base in Bolivia, the lives of the four main characters go from circling each other to intermingling. But each of them is so caught up in their own sense of what is morally right that they find it hard, in some cases impossible, to share their lives with others. In Franzen’s critically acclaimed novel The Corrections, the characters were trying to hide their true selves from the world. Similarly, in Purity, the characters, for the most part, are controlled by their secrets.

As usual, Franzen divides the novel into lengthy sections told from one of the four character’s points of view. Franzen spends a lot of time in his characters’ heads as they attempt to justify their actions and reminisce on what they have done. I found Andreas Wolf’s life as a church councillor in East Germany compelling as he tried to stay under the radar of the Stasi, even though his father was a high-ranking East German official. When Andreas “escapes” from East Germany, his secrets ensure he is never free.

But the story revolves around Purity and her search for her father’s identity. Her strict upbringing by her mother and lack of a father leave her longing for a father figure. This leads to a desire for a relationship with older men, be it the older married man living in her share house, or perhaps Andreas Wolf, or… While searching for her father and love, she leads an otherwise aimless existence ruled by cynicism.

I very much enjoyed being in the heads of the main characters. Their search for an ethical meaning to life often made me contemplate my own machinations. As I read, I pondered the possible consequences of their secrets being exposed and was frequently surprised by what happened. While not in the same class as The Corrections, Purity is entertaining and thought-provoking.