Purity by Jonathan Franzen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is biased by my preference for quality of the prose and mastery of characterizations (of people, times, and places) over the plot of the story that a novel tells.

I love the first two-thirds of Purity, where we get acquainted with the main characters: Pip (Purity), Andreas, Anabel, Tom, Annagret, and Leila. We meet Pip during the post-Occupy times in the Bay Area; the rendition of the atmosphere of these times is captivating. We read about Andreas' childhood and youth in the Soviet-controlled East Germany ("German Democratic Republic"), and we learn his secret. We follow the dramatic events surrounding the Wall coming down and the opening of the Stasi archives.

Andreas moves on to become the leader of The Sunshine Project, an outfit dedicated to exposing dark secrets of governments and corporations. The project is a fictional equivalent of Wikileaks, thus making Andreas a fictional counterpart of Julian Assange. We also meet Anabel, whose characterization I find phenomenal. She became one of the most vivid characters I have ever met in a novel. I feel like I have personally known Anabel for many, many years. Also worth noting is the author's insightful representation of the seemingly illogical mixture of true love and real hate that can bond some couples.

Alas, I don't like the last one-third of the novel. That's where my bias shows. In my opinion, the author stopped paying attention to convincingly depicting the world he created and focused on elegantly and satisfyingly wrapping up the plot and untangling its major and minor twists. The sense of closure is only illusory. Or maybe... maybe the novel is just a little too long for my taste...

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