Purity

by Andrzej Tichý, Nichola Smalley (translator)

2021 Nordic Council Literature Prize Finalist
The stories in Purity take the reader through cities and suburbs, apartments and streets, to find characters struggling to survive in modern a man has an outburst on a bus; a fugitive finds insight in a colour wheel; a social realist kills his friend with a hammer; a thief finds himself in books. And cleaners reluctantly go on cleaning.
With gravity and humour, against the backdrop of a violent civilization, people are depicted as fallen, or waiting to fall, rendered by Tichý with the fury, compassion and emotional complexity of Kendrick Lamar.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

222 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 4, 2024

Reviews

[Edward Champion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Move over Jonathan Franzen. THIS is the "purity" I would rather read about. Having read WRETCHEDNESS, it turns out that Andrzej Tichy is far better exploring the interior thoughts of gritty types in short bursts than in novel form (which culminates with the "interviews" in the titular story, reminiscent of DFW's "Brief Interviews"). Stories like "The Runaway" bring a weird philosophical heft to a vibe that is somewhere between a Robert Bresson film and the revealing interviews of Svetlana Alexeivich. One story begins with the line "I turn on the radio and hear a man talking about his cock." Another story deals with the ethics of stealing books. Tichy is very good at embracing contradiction: he wants us to consider the moral philosophy of completely amoral reprobates. That may or may not be your thing. And based on the initial Goodreads ratings, I would appear to be an outlier. But I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will await more volumes from Tichy to be translated. There's something defiantly original about his underworld angst that I can't quite pinpoint.

[aimee thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2*
Ummm yeah okay, the first few stories were snappy and engaging. I’m not used to the language style so it really took me off guard! However, the latter half of the book completely lost me …. Like okay??

[Lawrence Bricher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very brutal collage of immigrant experience in Sweden.

I think perhaps there may have been elements lost on me due to my neither being Swedish, nor having emigrated there, as much as I might like to.

The brutal style is arresting, at times a little overwhelming, but quite refreshing all the same, as I have been reading modern classics and books about Japanese people that give up on life and open a book store.

Life is brutal, and I enjoyed the perspective. Came away better for the experience.

[Paige Ramsamy · Rating 2 out of 5]

An example of Brodenism.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tichý’s works are associative collections of hallucination merged with the social realism of Swedish life. Tichý excels at weaving memory and phantasm, recollection and anticipation. Minutiae are collected to construct half-portraits, oscillating between infinitesimal observations and sweeping claims regarding contemporary life. The character masks that appear often engage in anecdote and storytelling, and if one affect permeates all the works (quite an ‘if’) it is a confusion regarding the world, and cynicism regarding its prospects. Uneasy nostalgia and unstable moments of absolution are often replaced by concrete disappointment and assured melancholy. The eponymous work ‘Purity’ is (dis)organised by appending a name, or the placeholder of a name, to each entry. Themes run loosely across the entries; the humiliation of cleaning for others and the minute revenge it offers, the insulted experience of migrants living in foreign cultures. A great deal of the entries are abstracted snippets, fragments of conversation, little eddies of thought that only approach sense when placed in this non-context. Occasionally leaping forwards or back in time, addressing nonexistent characters whom the narrator eventually admits are absent; such as in the most effective pieces, such as the opening work ‘Outburst’. Here Tichý best executes the patchwork mnemonic effect of little empty fragments that are composed of nothing but almost add up to a stable construction. Sentimentality for a passed relationship ebbs into a variety of scenes, all held together by conjecture about the humanity of a violent bus-goer and the preparation and consumption of fruit. Pining for his old love gives way to minute humiliation and an obscure narcotic laced meeting reunion that offers the furthest possible thing from closure or absolution. The temporal inversion that closes the work undermines the neat conclusion of the protagonists’ conversation with the man on the bus. All of Tichý’s characters are susceptible to implosion.
The closing work ‘One Last Anecdote’ best performs the leaps across contexts without being disorienting. The anachronism is no trick, but instead conveys the inversions of time’s laws, where memories hold so much promise and potential, and the future collapses, not free but already being recounted with grief and regret. Tales told by friends are equally harrowing as cavalier, as is the speaker’s own relationship with his own father who he both loves and resents.
The weaker entries rely too heavily on abstracted association, insufficiently braided to other half contexts, and as such they resonate emptily. Here singular and effective lines about suicide or resurrection ring out with appropriate timbre but there is no chance for musical phrases to develop, and as such the variations lack a tonal centre.

[Will Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars I would say. Didn’t quite take to it as much as wretchedness, but a worthwhile read if you like these experimental books about people on the fringes of society. I am not quite sure if I understood it really but does it matter? Probably not.

“But in the morning, while I was cleaning up after the night before, it occurred to me we'd actually been conditioned to admire these people - the musicians, poets, artists, bohemians and drug addicts.
Antisocial people, criminal people and their so-called 'freedom. That it was our parents who passed on this fascination, this attraction to self-destruction. An infantile, puerile idea that the goal of growing up is to destroy yourself and your life. When I grow up I'll become an artist and kill myself, as my brother said when he was six.”

[Prayash Giria · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology of semi-depressive short stories about violence, loss, existential sadness, disillusionment, and other sundry traumas, Tichy’s Purity definitely stands out for its unique perspective and sharp voice, but also disappoints with its frequently ‘complicated for the sake of it’ tone. A few stories did stand out to me - the one about the disillusioned woman who lost the intellectual spark she cultivated in college; and the gripping story about the man who gets murdered by his friend. The rest, however, were hard to appreciate.

[Rick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate what the author was trying to do, telling hard luck stories with stream of consciousness threads. There were some very enlightening thoughts in here, too, ones that really take you out of your comfort zone, and give you some perspectives into lives that aren't comfortable. I just found the narrative style got in the way of the clarity I was looking for. The stories got muddier rather than razor sharp, and reading it became a chore rather than an illumination.

[Ben Wasson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Near-perfect, honest but unmeandering stream-of-consciousness, like peeking through a crack in the door to watch somebody pull out their hair, confront their realities, mostly their traumas, or the folds of a complicated question; if Impressionism was not already a literary term (excuse my ignorance) then it is now.

[Matt Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories with the themes of immigration, class and racism in Sweden.

Visceral, violent, razor-sharp.

The chapter 'Purity' is a collection of different cleaners' living experiences, worries and problems.

[Gary Homewood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories of characters living hard chaotic lives on the edges of modern European society, buffeted by politics, with the ever-present threat of violence. Glimmers of lucidity, poetry and humour amongst the pain.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my thing, but there were some nice phrases and the last story was pretty good. 2.5.

[Toby Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not rly sure how to feel abt this one… very interesting and well-written but sort of difficult to get into

[Robert Goodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of passages in this book where I think the writing and translation was really good but the lack of cohesion made it hard to build momenutum

[Silla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply original.

[beyza · Rating 4 out of 5]

kafamın içindeki sesler gibi bi kitap, çok sevdim

[gracie · Rating 2 out of 5]

graphic violent unsettling book. ultimately i think just not for me although i can appreciate part of the writing, stories, etc