Episode 35 – Purity
The Worst Bestsellers
Worst Bestsellers
4.5 • 609 Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2015
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kait, Renata, and their guest Sophie (of Two Bossy Dames) read Purity by Jonathan Franzen, a length tome on technology, privacy, and mostly, how women are the worst. They are just the worst! Luckily, these women often have older men around, on whom to fixate their attention. If they’re lucky, they might even get to bone a writer! Also: Jonathan Franzen never got around to adopting that orphan to explain Youth Culture to him, and it shows. Listen now to hear us womansplain the internet!
Content warning: This book contains some questionable sexual content, and so does our discussion of it.
Readers advisory: Here.
Footnotes: The Song Franzen Called A “Great Song” At The End Of Purity Is The Worst Thing About Purity
Lunch With The FT: Jonathan Franzen
Orange Is The New Black Book Funeral
Purity by Jonathan Franzen review – dazzling, hilarious, and problematic
Candy pairing: Kait says overpriced organic fair trade chocolate, Renata says anything that’s been recalled, Sophie says 3 Musketeers.
Coming up next: The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans.
* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the worst bestsellers, where we read about the moral |
| 0:15.3 | corruptive powers of literally all women so you don't have to. |
| 0:19.7 | I'm Renata. |
| 0:20.8 | And I'm Kate. |
| 0:21.7 | And for this episode, we read Purity by Jonathan Franzen. |
| 0:25.9 | Joining us to discuss this awards bait-e brick of a novel is Sophie, |
| 0:31.6 | Bossie Dame, who Jonathan Franzen probably wouldn't like because he loathes all women, |
| 0:37.4 | especially ones who are mothers. |
| 0:40.0 | Hello, Sophie. |
| 0:41.2 | Hello. |
| 0:42.5 | Thanks for joining us to discuss your nemesis. |
| 0:45.6 | Thank you for having me. |
| 0:47.1 | This is, well, it's going to be real special. |
| 0:50.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:51.2 | Just a whole chunk of time to really dig into your Franz and Freuda. |
| 0:55.5 | Exactly, exactly. |
| 0:57.0 | Which is something I do anyway, but, you know, being able to do it in this concentrated way with two of you who I know get it. |
| 1:05.7 | Well, interestingly enough, prior to, and I think I said this little bit on Twitter to you guys, prior to recently, I only vaguely knew who Jonathan Franzen was. |
| 1:18.6 | Like, I knew that he was one of those, like, white male literary fiction writers. |
| 1:24.0 | I could not connect him with a book that he had written if you asked me. |
| 1:28.8 | I could not have told you anything about him. |
| 1:31.4 | And then I think it was you, Sophie, or someone linked to some profile on him right when this was coming out. |
... |
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