In Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, Purity, there are two spots that seem so familiar that I’m sure I’ve read them someplace before. I can only surmise that he raided his earlier works for these two scenes. Or else - where could I have read them? One, the set of scenes in which Andreas is counseling and bedding young waifs - and his attendant love of pussy, and the other, where someone falls over a trip wire intentionally set on the back stairs of a house at night. I see no references to this in any reviews I’ve researched. I can’t have deja vu this accurately (I even predicted a couple of events before I read them) if I haven’t read something very much like this. Where are these scenes from? Is it curious that no reviewers have mentioned this?
Bump. Are there no posts because the book is so recently released? I guess I’ll try again when people have had more of a chance to read it.
I’ve read the reviews and heard a couple of interviews, but don’t think I will be reading it. I read The Corrections and a few short stories and essays and haven’t found I like his voice as a writer.