Blog
Jonathan Franzen introduces Purity
The American author on the idealism of youth and taking his fiction to darker, harder places
"There is no subject to me funnier," says Jonathan Franzen, "Than the idealism of youth. It's an intrinisically hilarious subject. But when you play it out over time, it's not always so funny."
Purity, Franzen's latest entry into his ongoing series of Great American Novels, is about Pip Tyler, a young woman hoping to figure out who she is. She doesn't know her father and her mother has secrets which Pip wants to know the answers to. Why has Pip grown up in a secluded mountain cabin and why has her mother taken an invented name?
But Purity isn't the sort of novel that's solely about character and nothing much happens.
"There’s a murder," says Franzen. "There’s a missing nuclear warhead. There's a lot of really wrenching stuff in the book. I was trying to dig in to the really hot places I had not dared to go before. Because I worried that the reader might not necessarily want to go to some of these darker, harder, rawer places, I decided to give it a plot so they couldn’t put it down. Even if you finished it and said, ‘Woah, what was that?’ at least you’d have the pleasure of being drawn along."
Purity is published on September 1st and, very excitingly, we currently have a limited number of signed editions available on our website.
Related articles
Sign In / Register
Not registered? CREATE AN ACCOUNTCREATE A plus ACCOUNT
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
Click & Collect
Reserve online, pay on collection.
Or, add to basket, pay online, collect in as little as 2 hours, subject to availability.
Or, add to basket, pay online, collect in as little as 2 hours, subject to availability.
Thank you for your reservation
Your order is now being processed and we have sent a confirmation email to you at
When will my order be ready to collect?
Following the initial email, you will be contacted by the shop to confirm that your item is available for collection.
Call us on or send us an email at
Unfortunately there has been a problem with your order
Please try again or alternatively you can contact your chosen shop on or send us an email at
Comments
There are currently no comments.