Books: Purity By Jonathan Franzen

(Drivebycuriosity) - Jonathan Franzen is one of the super stars in the contemporary literature scene and his new novel "Purity" gained a lot of attention (amazon). This got my curiosity and I gave the book a try. After about 50% I gave up reading.

"Purity" could have been an amusing novella (about 80-100 pages) but it is inflated to around 600 pages, way too long.  The book is a freak show (you can read a synopsis here wikipedia ). There is no stringent plot, instead the book circles around some unbelievable characters and their experiences. The name giving character "Purity", called "Pips", is a dysfunctional person who has a conflict with her mother, who is dysfunctional as well. There are a lot of other incredible characters, especially Andreas Wolf, who grew up in the then communist  Eastern Germany and became the famed leader of a cult in Bolivia - a media super star with a harem . Reading the parade of strange encounters and literary stunts is temporarily amusing but gets tiring after a while.

Life is too short for reading Franzen!