Caleb Crain's piece for the Atlantic on Purity bears a salacious headline — "Jonathan Franzen Strikes Again: His latest targets: web sleuths and feminists" — but it's really just one of those pre-publication book reviews that kind of gives out way too much information about the book. You can expect all kinds of clickbait-y headlines in the next few weeks, now that Franzen's back in town.
Honestly, I haven't decided whether I'm going to read Purity or not; there are so many great books by non-Franzens out there just waiting to be read, and I was underwhelmed both by Freedom and by Franzen's last Seattle appearance.
And for the record, the best thing ever written about Franzen is this microfiction by Patricia Lockwood, which she read the last time she appeared in Seattle:
Just discovered this stunning short story in my drafts pic.twitter.com/T4RPbUjr3R
— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) July 9, 2014Share this note: