I found Purity, which revolves around people who have variously relegated themselves to the fringes of society, immensely alienating.
I found Purity, which revolves around people who have variously relegated themselves to the fringes of society, immensely alienating.
This book delivers a great strike against the notion that the idealist is an exceptional individual, someone more enlightened, more autonomous, more principled than the droning masses, by showing how self-deluding and reactive the uptake of countercultural values can be.
Many people (including me) try not to believe in that level of determinism because it's frankly very depressing. I finished the book feeling nauseated. Not a comment on its quality. Truth hurts! I liked the style of the prose and on its face it is an interesting story about interesting people. I will definitely pick up Franzen again.
It reads like a very long, very one-sided conversation with somebody you come to understand is insane but only after the point where you want to kn...
If you've read any amount of history on mind control or MKULTRA I don't think much in this book will be novel to you. I want to say this would be a...
Read this over the course of a few days while waiting around. Certainly it feels like a strange fable.
I haven't read Purity, but I have read (and loved) other Franzen novels. Sounds like this is your first? Based on your description, I think you'll like his other work. The Corrections and Freedom are great, and I hear great things about Crossroads too. His essays are also good; I love the one about birdwatching.
I like when authors are essayists also :) mentally filing this tidbit away for my commute