Weekend picks for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN’s picks for book lovers include Purity, the entertaining new novel by Jonathan Franzen, and an offbeat short story collection by actor Jesse Eisenberg.
Purity by Jonathan Franzen; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 563 pp.; fiction
Every once in a while in fiction, when we’re lucky, a character comes along who grabs you by the teeth and won’t let go.
In Jonathan Franzen’s Purity, that unforgettable character is Andreas Wolf, a Julian Assange-like “Internet outlaw.”
A charismatic creep you’ll hate to love, this sexy, complicated egomaniac is worshipped by millions for his WikiLeaks-style “Sunlight Project.” But behind the “sunlight” are some very dark secrets.
Dickensian names are no accident in this bursting-at-the-seams tale, which offers up murder, perverse sex, Freudian mother-son and father-daughter angst, and anti-technology paranoia to feast upon.
Purity opens with the story of Purity Tyler, nicknamed Pip, as in Great Expectations. She’s a 23-year-old Oakland, Calif., girl with a weirdly reclusive single mother who changed her name to hide from Pip’s abusive father (or so she says) before Pip was born.
Saddled with $130,000 in student debt, Pip is lured into the world of Andreas Wolf by the promise of a paid internship and Sunlight’s hacking resources, which might allow her to learn who her father is.
Paste BN says ***1/2 out of four. “Wildly entertaining… frequently hilarious.”
Bream Gives Me Hiccups & Other Stories by Jesse Eisenberg; Grove Press, 271 pp.; fiction
This debut story collection by the actor (The Social Network, American Ultra) offers tales and jokes that muse absurdly on topics such as dating, family, sports and self-help.
Paste BN sys ***. “A brisk, approachable read…a confident step forward for Eisenberg as a writer.”
Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy, M.D.; Picador, 245 pp.; non-fiction
Early is his memoir, Black Man in a White Coat, psychiatrist Damon Tweedy forces readers to confront an important lesson he learned as a first-year medical student: Being black can be bad for your health.
Paste BN says ***. “Fascinating… an engaging, introspective memoir.”
The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz; Knopf, 416 pp.; fiction
Hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist return in this sequel to Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium mystery series, which started with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Paste BN says ****. “ Lagercrantz takes the reins with prowess… a twisty, bloody thrill ride.”
Voices in the Ocean: A Journey Into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins by Susan Casey; Doubleday, 278 pp.; non-fiction
Provides textbook-depth education that is based on Casey’s years of swimming the open seas with dolphins, interviews with leading experts and protectors, and harrowing trips to the nether reaches of the globe where horrific brutalities occur.
Paste BN says ****. “Painstakingly researched and gorgeously written.”
Contributing reviewers: Jocelyn McClurg, Patrick Ryan, Matt McCarthy, Sharon Peters