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    Pure
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    Pure
    Audiobook9 hours

    Pure

    Written by Andrew Miller

    Narrated by Ralph Cosham

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Jean-Baptiste Baratte, an engineer of modest origin, arrives in the city in 1785, charged by the King’s minister with emptying the overflowing cemetery of Les Innocents, a ancient site whose stench is poisoning the neighborhood’s air and water and leaving a vile taste in its inhabitants’ food. At first the ambitious Baratte sees his work as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to both his own demise and that of the monarchy. Baratte expects the task to be unpleasant but cannot foresee the dramas and calamities it will trigger, or the incident that will transform his life. As unrest against the court of Louis XVI mounts, the engineer realizes that the future he had planned may no longer be the one he wants. His assignment becomes a year of relentless work, exhuming of mummified corpses and listening to the chants of priests, a year of assault and sudden death. A year of friendship, too, and of desire and love. A year unlike any other he has lived.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateMay 29, 2012
    ISBN9781611208160
    Author

    Andrew Miller

    ANDREW MILLER is an operations expert whose clients include the Bank of Nova Scotia, McKesson Canada, 3M Canada, Mount Sinai Hospital, and other world-class institutions. Before starting his firm in 2006, he held senior consulting positions with IBM Business Consulting Services and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting.

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    Reviews for Pure

    4/5

    36 ratings41 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is the third book I've read off of my "Genre Novels That Should Be Classics" reading list in a quest to expand my book choices beyond my normal comfort zone. I'm not a big historical fiction reader. Sometimes it makes appearances in my Fantasy or Science Fiction picks, but I never avidly seek it out. That's why I chose to listen to the audio of Pure. Jonathan Aris came highly recommended as a narrator, and I hoped he'd help me immerse myself in Paris circa 1785.

      Jean-Baptiste Baratte was an intriguing character. A young man, an engineer, with visions of grand projects flitting across his mind. Imagine his surprise when the first job that he is tasked with, is the destruction of Les Innocents cemetary and its church. I was pulled in by this thought. If this is the only job offered, and you need the work, does it matter that you'll be destroying a piece of history? Unearthing the loved ones of others? Watching Jean-Baptiste struggle with this, following along as he fought his own inner demons, fascinated me.

      What was tough for me, were the layers this book contains. Pure is packed to the brim with metaphor and symbolism. It may have been easier for me to soak that all in if I had been reading printed words. Perhaps. Despite Jonathan Aris' excellent narration, I still lost myself at certain points. Jean-Baptiste's thoughts would reach a point where they were so dense, so scattered, that I'd find myself struggling to pay attention. There were high points, and low points, but the ending threw me completely off. I listened to it again, just to make sure I didn't miss something important. I'm still confused.

      For a very vividly written Paris backdrop, and a character that I enjoyed, I'll give this a two-star rating. The extra star is for Jonathan Aris' wonderful narration. If you have the opportunity to listen to this on audio, I'd say go for it! My quest continues on!
    • 3/5
      Imagery very good, an olfactory story, a bit like Perfume:The story of a Murder. An enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      End 18th century. A young engineer has to clean up an age-old church-yard in the middle of the capital.
    • 4/5
      Nice, enjoyable. Read it.
    • 3/5
      I can't deny the skill that went into writing this - it's 18th century France to its core (and I've no idea why I'm so sure since I obviously didn't live in 18th century France, but there was a strong sense of authenticity about it), but I didn't find it an enjoyable read. An engineer is engaged to excavate a putrefying graveyard. He does it. If you're interested in how such a task might be completed this book is for you. But I was looking for a compelling plot and I didn't find one. Of the shopping list of dramatic events listed on the back page little is heard until close to the end when several of them happen at once, taking up relatively little time, and normal grave-excavation service is promptly resumed. The most intriguing character in the book was perhaps Ziguette, but she promptly disappears never to be seen again. And what exactly was the attraction between the protagonist and Heloise which apparently springs from nowhere. Big questions weren't answered, or at least not in a way I could understand. Books like this often make me feel as though I am missing something: some allegory or some hint I have failed to pick up on. The mummified bodies for example - were we supposed to know who they were, or what connection they had to the other characters? It went over my head if so. I had previously read and not enjoyed a book by this author, and this went much the same way. It's very strong writing, but in the way that magnets can be strong, and yet still repel each other.
    • 3/5
      This book was not quite what I had expected. I did, however, still enjoy it. The macabre setting lends itself to supernatural expectations but the natural is just as strange. Jean-Baptisite is not the most sympathetic of characters but his journey is an interesting one.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book quite a bit. In 1785 a young engineer is tasked with removing a cemetery in the center of Paris that stinks and affects the health of all the inhabitants. He hires a team of miners and they set to work on the distasteful work of digging out the bones, and transporting them to their new home. Metaphorically, of course, the cemetery is the ancien regime itself, and the work of dismantling the cemetery foreshadows the revolution that is on the horizon. The engineer undergoes a transformation along the way from naive idealistic young man to a competent manager who has a clearer understanding of life and what gives it meaning.
    • 5/5
      Synopsis
      A year of bones, of grave-dirt, relentless work. Of mummified corpses and chanting priests.

      A year of rape, suicide, sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love...

      A year unlike any other he has lived.

      Deep in the heart of Paris, its oldest cemetery is, by 1785, overflowing, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it.

      At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.
    • 2/5
      What was I thinking when I put this book on my wish list? I guess it was that I liked Miller's writing in "Oxygen" and wanted to try out more of his work. However, I invoked the Nancy Pearl rule and terminated my reading of this book. It was kind-of interesting, in an historical sort of way, but was just too much removed from my own experience to make it worth reading - at my advanced age, with not too many books worth of reading time left. If I were a 20 year old, it would probably be worth reading for "my own education". I'm beyond education now.
    • 3/5
      Love the cover art of my copy but what a peculiar story. At times descriptive and flowing, and other times rather obtuse, vague and disjointed, I struggled as I tried to follow the author's logic - I am assuming there was some logic at work here - in piecing together this tale. My appreciation of the story - more the lack there of - could be chalked up to my impression that the story has a resigned Dickensian quality to it: The engineer's task is one that borders on the monumental, set in a time and place not wholly dissimilar to the dank, festering world of Dickens' grimy London. Dickens is very much a hit-or-miss author for me and sadly, this does not lend assistance in getting me to appreciate Miller's story. The whole story gave me the overall impression/feeling of ruin and crumbling decay - that was done rather well - but I found Miller's prose to be a bit stilted, almost as though it was a poor translation, even though it was written in the English language. Interesting story concept with a lot of potential but the delivery just fell flat for me. Part of me was hoping that this was the author's debut novel - it kind of had that 'debut' feel to it - but, no, this is novel number six so I am at a loss to explain my review and rating except to say that I am not Miller's target reading audience, even though the LT Will you like it? gave it a very high prediction confidence that I probably will like it. Always fun to click that after I finish a book!
    • 4/5
      Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young French engineer, arrives in 1785 Paris and receives the assignment to empty the Les Innocents cemetery, which is overflowing and having an ... erm ... environmental impact on the surrounding area. Baratte finds lodgings with a local family, the Monnards, and hires a team of laborers from a mine, with his friend Lecoeur as foreman. The cemetery also includes a church, no longer in use but with a staff that includes a priest, sexton and organist. As excavation begins the enormity of Baratte's task becomes evident. The cemetery is sub-divided and the crew tackles one large pit at a time. Remains must be moved, and the pit refilled. The laborers initially see their new jobs as a step up from working in a dangerous mine, but Baratte faces one challenge after another in motivating the laborers and providing for their basic needs. Baratte also must deal with a wide variety of emotions from the local residents. Some take great interest in the project and lend their talents to providing for the laborers. Others see the cemetery as an institution that should not be tampered with. As the story progresses, Baratte moves from idealistic and naive to someone more hardened, resigned, and at times even desperate. Baratte and the organist Armand strike up a friendship, and Armand helps him find his way with the locals. But Baratte's friendship with Lecoeur is tested as men who were once peers adjust to a new working relationship, and the stress of the project begins taking its toll. Three women play pivotal roles in the community and are just as interesting as those working on the excavation. Their stories enhance the dramatic tension and greatly enrich this novel.
    • 5/5
      This has got to be one of the most beautifully written contemporary British novels of recent years. Andrew Miller's writing is a revelation: apparently effortless, wonderfully evocative prose to savour that conjures up the Paris quarter of les Halles and the cemetery of les Innocents before the start of the French Revolution, but with a palpable civil unrest already tainting the air, along with the stink of the overflowing burial ground. From the first sentence the reader is transported through time and space, following Jean-Baptiste Baratte, the engineer from Normandy, as he tries to make his way in the capital, tasked with the almost impossible: how to empty the ancient cemetery of les Innocents, and destroy its church and sexton's house, in order to purify the Paris air? Over the subsequent twelve months, we follow Jean-Baptiste and an eclectic assortment of friends and acquaintances as they encounter bones dating back centuries, mummified corpses, accidental death and suicide, rape and insanity, but also friendship and love, leaving me quite breathless at the end. Wonderful stuff that could inspire someone to become a writer; heartily recommended.
    • 5/5
      An excellent, quick read about the destruction of the les Innocents cemetery in Paris, just before the French Revolution. It is the story of the engineer who overseas the task, but follows him on a personal as well as professional level. He is a likeable character, with just the right balance of integrity and idiocy to make a good protagonist (in my view). The descriptions are beautiful, building a a picture of life in the les Halles area of Paris, and the book is full of colourful and eccentric characters. Most enjoyable to read, but also a bit gruesome. Somehow the unpleasant parts of the story, like the task itself ostensibly, seem tolerable.
    • 4/5
      Pure by Andrew Miller is set in the 19th Century and takes place amidst Les Innocents, the oldest cemetery in Paris. In 1875, the cemetery has been closed to burials for 5 years because it is overflowing with corpses and emitting a foul stench that permeates the air and taints anything growing in the ground nearby.Jean-Baptiste Baratte is a young Engineer employed by the Minister to demolish the Les Innocents Cemetery and relocate the human remains to a secondary site outside the city of Paris. (The location is known to us now as the Catacombs of Paris).Jean-Baptiste struggles with the morality of the project and where to find men willing to carry out the dark task of disturbing the final resting place of thousands of Parisian occupants. Pure is rich in a sense of place and I really felt as though I were in Paris with the protagonist. The descriptions of the church, the charnel houses, the graveyards and the massive organ inside the church were so evocative I was quick to build a clear picture in my mind of this grisly yet soulful place. So much so, that when I stopped reading Pure to do some private reading about Les Innocents, the sketches were exactly what I'd pictured in my mind. The cemetery had been operating from the middle ages until 1780, and was said to contain the remains of 2 million people.The true historical nature of the subject matter is the real hero here, and it's no surprise that Pure won the Costa Book Award in 2011 for "Best Novel" and "Book of the Year." Despite the dark content, there are several opportunities to smile throughout the novel, and here's one I'd like to share from page 51:"He must read, work, think. He...pulls close the candle and opens his copy of Buffon's Histoire Naturelle Volume II. A piece of pale straw is his bookmark. He frowns over the page. The taxonomy of fish. Good. Excellent. He manages an entire paragraph before the words swim away from him in black, flickering shoals..."I loved that quote, and hopefully it gives you an insight into Andrew Miller's writing style. Pure is not a book for everyone, it's gruesome and confronting and the smells alone might be enough to deter a brave reader, but it covers a fascinating event in history and one this reader definitely didn't want to shy away from.
    • 4/5
      Great historical fiction with strange premise. Jean-Baptiste Baratte is a young engineer who finds himself employed to supervise the taking down of an old crumbling cathedral in Paris along with the cemetery next to it which is filled to over flow with dead bodies. It is the stink of too many dead that has finally caused the government to remove this site. Jean-Baptiste is a good man from a rural area who believes that reason should rule out superstition. Upon arrival in Paris, Jean-Baptiste meets the young organist who continues to play in the church although no one is there. Armand soon becomes a friend. Jean-Baptiste lives next to the church with a family, the Monnard's, whose strange daughter is very upset and unhappy about the removal of the church and the cemetery. The strange smells of the place have become so much a part of the lives of those that live nearby. There are a host of other characters in the book including a past friend of Jean-Baptiste who he recruits from the mines to help him in his assignment. There is the old sexton of the church who lives with his lovely daughter, Jeanne, who can smell nothing of the stench. The digging up of bodies sounds horrid, but the story is written with such skill, it is believable, and not impossible to imagine in the mind's eye.The task of destroying the church is finally finished but not in the way that he had expected. There is violence, friendship, fun, death, and horror intermingled in this well-written novel. Set in a time just before the French Revolution, I'm sure this can be parsed down as an allegory for French society at the time, but it is also just a good read.Only problem, is the ending which I would describe as weird - probably missed some point in there.
    • 3/5
      Oh the smell! Paris in 1785 stank. Not only was the ancient graveyard of Les Innocents putrid because it was so full of corpses they couldn't decay, but the people didn’t bathe and hardly washed and then there were chamber pots under beds, in cupboards, behind screens and even in the corner of the box at the opera. In this sense the title of the book, Pure, is a oxymoron. Pooh’s and piss perfuming everywhere!That, of course, must be the author’s intent. There are two major aspects of this novel. On the one hand there is the powerful overriding metaphor that is the fact of the book. Secondly there is the sweet story of a young man with talent and aspiration who reconciles his notion of himself in his future with the reality of himself as a person as he goes through a major proving moment (a year) and settles to love with a woman and they with the companionship of friends.Through history any reader knows that the monumental French Revolution is only four years away. The Revolution is a cornerstone event in European civilisation and this civilisation’s dominance in the contemporary world. Bound with the names of locations and characters a meta table of symbols is laid out against which the saccharine (though stinky) story of the novel’s people plays out. Les Innocents alludes to Herod the king killing the innocent children. The central character Jean-Baptist Barrate is also John the Baptist and Barrate is a churn – a butter churn. Here is John the Baptist paving the way for the saviour (the Revolution?) turning over the foundation of the Catholic Church – which in France at the time was as corrupt as all get out. Lurking kindly in the story is Dr Guillotin studying life in the detritus of the corpses as they come from the ground. He is the historical character who as a Deputy in the first Assembly of the people after the revolution, and as a stern advocate against the death penalty, convinced the Deputies that if they were insistent on having a death penalty to do it as instantly as possible with Antoine Louis’s invention. (Severing the blood flow from the heart to the brain immediately reduces the cerebral profusion pressure and the neurones in the brain die instantly.) So, in Pure, we have this whacking huge metaphor as a backdrop to what is a sweet (innocent?) every day tale of a young man maturing. There is nothing outstanding in that story, lots of books have done that better. Andrew Millers writing is okay – good but not exceptional. Some of the vignettes with curious characters he drops into the story are witty. The importance of this book is the metaphor; the story, not so much.
    • 4/5
      This was voted Costa Novel of 2011 and was chosen by the Glasgow book group as our next read.

      The blurb says:
      "Deep in the heart of Paris its oldest cemetery is, by 1785, overflowing. Its stench hangs in the air, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. The over-filled graves pop and burst, filling people’s basements with bones and spreading disease across the capital. But the cemetery’s roots are embedded deep in the hearts and minds of the people, for whom the graveyard has long provided a backdrop to their daily lives. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it. At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own."

      I loved the story of Jean-Baptiste. He arrives in Paris quite naive but with a sense of purpose. He sets about his task of clearing/cleansing Les Innocents but also finds himself distracted by the people, sights & sounds of Paris. The task takes its toll on him, but he also learns/grows from his experiences. As always, much more about the book would give too much away.

      The descriptions of pre-revolutionary Paris and of the graveyard in particular are deeply evocative, I could almost feel my stomach heave as the author described the 'taint' to breath & food from the proximity to the graveyard. I loved all the characters that surrounded Jean-Baptiste and find myself wondering what happened to all these people during the revolution. Did they take part, did they survive, how were they impacted?

      I think that's my only quibble: I would have liked a little more. Not just about the characters, but also about how the local people were affected by the graveyard's removal ie was life better or worse? Did the air clear? Was the taint removed or would that linger for the rest of their lives?

      That's hardly a complaint tho, I loved the book, flew through it and would highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      I love the book. It's elegant, dark, thrilling, sad and poetic all at once. That's a very rare combination and Andrew Miller accomplishes to sweep you away into the Paris of the 18th century. You totally emerge into the world of Les Innocents and you will finish the book a bit less innocent as you started it.
    • 3/5
      Better than a 3, not quite as good as a 4 in my book. I must admit that I could not put it down, though.
    • 4/5
      In the year 1785 Jean-Baptiste Baratte arrives in Paris with the ordered by the King’s minister of clearing the cemetery of Les Innocents. The ancient burial site is overflowing and the stench of it poisons the air and water; maybe even some of the residents nearby as well. At first Baratte sees his work as helpful to society, but later wonders if it is the sole cause of unrest and the unruly conduct that precedes his arrival. The year holds much drama and unrest causing him to question everything, but also there are bonds of friendship and love that can only be attributed to Les Innocents.Let’s start with my only negative, which is an abundance of characters. At times I found it hard to keep track of all of the minor characters, especially with them having such similar names. This is not the only historical fiction novel that I have had the same problem with. Even though it can be frustrating it’s not something that keeps me from enjoying the story. The reason I love this genre is that it prompts me to look into things and to learn something new. I really like this story and all the twists and turns that it held. The relationships Baratte builds are vivid and enjoyable to read. Pacing was never a problem and I never lost interest or found myself bored. I can easily recommend this one, especially to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      At the end of the eighteenth century the ancient church and cemetery of Les Innocents in the heart of Paris has become a place which inspires only disgust. For centuries the burial place of the city, the number of bodies have far outstripped the capacity of the ground to cope with them:They tell me that during one single outbreak of the plague fifty thousand corpses were buried at les Innocents in less than a month. And so it continued, corpse upon corpse, the death-carts queuing along the rue Saint-Denis. There were even burials at night by torchlight. Corpse upon corpse. A number beyond computation. Vast legions packed into a smudge of earth no bigger than a potato field.But by the year 1785 the result of this overcrowding of the dead have become impossible to ignore. The smell inside the church and cemetery have become almost unbearable: it pervades the surrounding area tainting everything it touches. And there is danger as well, those living around the cemetary find that to enter their own cellar can mean the risk of unconsciousness and death, as the noxious gases seep through the earth. And the final straw comes after heavy rains, when a retaining wall collapses letting the contents of a burial pit spill into the cellar of an unfortunate neighbour. And so the engineer Jean-Baptiste Barratte is appointed to deal with the problem once and for all: to disinterr the remains of les Innocents and transport them to a place outside the city, to demolish the church and to make clean the ground. But not all those living in the area are equally keen to see the destruction of the cemetery, in particular its priest Pere Colbert, and the daughter of the family with whom the engineer lodges, Zygette. And as the work proceeds Jean-Baptiste finds that he has more issues to deal with than merely resentment of his task.It was actually the story of the cemetery and its destruction, in all its slightly gruesome details, that I enjoyed most about this work, as well as the evocation of a Paris on the borders of change. Set only very slightly before the French Revolution, the idea of change pervades the book, and the cemetery seems to represent the corrupt and moribund ancien regime waiting to be destroyed. Even the glamour of Versailles is clearly a facade: on his visit to receive his instructions the fabled mirrors are there, but tarnished and dusty. I didn't find that the fate of the characters interested me as much as the fate of the cemetery, certainly at the beginning of the book. Overall, a good read, but I have to say that most people at my RL book club enjoyed it much more than I did. Several loved it, and would obviously have given it five stars if they'd been rating it in that way. But for me it was a good solid enjoyable read but not a special one. But I'd be very happy to try some of the author's other historical novels.
    • 1/5
      Dull, dull and dull. Why use 1 word when 24 will do? I just hated the style. An interesting historical episode but the book was like treacle. After page 30 I just skim read to the end in about 30 mins. Good idea, bad execution.
    • 3/5
      For those that enjoy historical fiction here's a pick for you! I don't read much historical fiction but what got me interested in this particular one is it's set right outside the Palace of Versailles during the time of Louis XVI. I am a fan of the movie Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst and thought that it would be interesting to see what it was like for the people living outside the palace during the same time. While our main character's job is most undesirable, and most likely to fail. He only does some of the dirty work himself. Soon after arriving to clean out the remains of an overflowing cemetery he gets a crew of 30 men to dig. They find many things during their exhumations. Even though Jean-Baptiste is hired for this rather untasteful task, it does consume a year of his life. There is much more to this story than digging up the bodies. The church that lies above, in which the bodies are slowly encroaching and the nearby shopping center. The conflicts as well as intermixing concerns of both, and more!He does find comfort in the arms of Héloise and a friend in Armand. Of course at the heart of the story is that there is revolution brewing. People are upset and want enlightenment. And during this day and age, their lives will literally go up in flames. A melancholy story full of dead bodies, but with love and friendship during one of the hardest years in their lives.
    • 3/5
      An abandoned and overfilled graveyard and church poses a health hazard to the people of Paris. An engineer is commissioned to make the air pure by emptying the graves and relocating the bones to an empty quarry. The work is fraught with unsurprisingly disagreeable delays - the workers and their lives are described in detail. I enjoyed the read- but will not recommend it to many.
    • 3/5
      A year of bones, of grave-dirt, relentless work. Of mummified corpses and chanting priests.A year of rape, suicide, sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love...A year unlike any other he has lived.Deep in the heart of Paris, its oldest cemetery is, by 1785, overflowing, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it.At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.My Thoughts:I was given this book last month at book group and I gave up after 30 pages. When I went to book group all my fellow members raved about how good it was and I had missed a treat. So I have given it another go.I stll feel that 30 pages was enough first time around. I just don’t get it ! The only positive things that I can say is that the book was well written and the historical elements of the book. That is it for me. I just cannot see where my fellow book grouos members are coming from.Not for me I’m afraid.
    • 4/5
      t’s 1785. Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, ambitious engineer, arrives at the palace of Versailles hoping to get a Ministerial commission that will help him make a mark on the world. He "dreams of building utopias where the church and its superstitions will be replaced by schools run by men like himself." Instead, the task he is handed is not one of construction but of demolition.In the Rue de Saint Innocents stands the oldest cemetery in Paris. More than 50,000 victims of bubonic plague were reputedly buried here in one day. The subterranean wall separating the living from the dead has collapsed and the bones and decaying flesh have released a miasma which fouls the air, taints the food and even the breath of those who live within its shadow.It takes a year for Barratte and his team of miners to open the graves and clear away the past. It’s a job which almost costs Baratte his life as the cemetery becomes a kind of hell of burning fires and walls of bones and skulls. Few of those involved in the enterprise emerge unscathed physically or mentally. When they began they imagined they were engaged in a noble cause, building the foundations of a better future in which their endeavours would be marked for posterity.“They will name squares after us ……..the men who purified Paris,” declares the foreman of works. But as the graves are emptied and the cemetery's wild flowers wither, so the vitality drains out of the workers. Tobacco, alcohol, weekly visits by prostitutes – nothing can distract the team of miners from the sense of loss. ‘I had some good in me once' one observes bleakly.Baratte too undergoes a transformation. The naïve young man is easy prey when he first arrives in the city. It takes little to persuade him to exchange his sensible brown suit for one of pistachio green silk or to join a group of drunken vandals who move about the city under cover of night painting obscenities about Queen Marie Antoinette. But it is not long before he finds he cannot sleep without a sedative and his ideals and belief in the power of reason are destroyed.The cleansing of the cemetery is an extended metaphor for the cleansing that we as readers know these citizens will experience shortly, although on a significantly bigger scale. Miller provides plenty of symbolic references to the French Revolution, including naming one of characters Dr Guillotin and including dialogue that can easily be read on two levels. Take this example, from Baratte's first meeting with the Ministerial aide, who gives him his commission:It is poisoning the city. Left long enough, it may poison not just local shopkeepers but the king himself. The king and his ministers.Yes, my lord.It is to be removed.Removed?Destroyed. Church and cemetery. The place is to be made sweet again. Use fire, use brimstone. Use whatever you need to get rid of it.Pure is Andrew Miller’s sixth novel and it won him the 2011 Costa Book of the Year award. The judges praised it as a "structurally and stylistically flawless historical novel." Miller deftly avoids some of the biggest failings I see in many historical novels - the author's tendency to want to drown readers in period detail and factual information and then to make their characters speak in a kind of cod 'period language'.Not so for Miller. He's clearly done his research but only uses it to bring the characters and location alive through snatches of information about clothes, food and daily domestic life . His descriptions of the stench that pervades the neighbourhood were so powerful I could almost smell it on the page I had in my hands. (rather like my feeling on reading the Paris scenes early on in Patrick Sushkind’s Perfume).In all, for me Pure was a gripping read.
    • 4/5
      About the clearing of a Parisian cemetary before the French revolution. Although this is an extended metaphor for the 'cleansing' the revolution demanded, I was( unfairly) disappointed in the claustrophobic atmosphere, expecting it, from the cover blurb to be more overtly political and explanatory of the period. On the positive, very specific, original and imaginative. Reading Wikipedia Les Innocents was so overcrowded that corpses couldn't decompose, and in the clearing, body fat was sold off to make candles and soap, Surprised Miller held back from this shocking fact.
    • 4/5
      Very evocative description of historical paris, emptying graves.
    • 4/5
      An absorbing read, very memorable and rendered in beautifully balanced prose. The subject matter is utterly compelling, especially for a Francophile. I highly recommend it. My only possible quibble is that, while Miller renders the time period and location in a way that feels historically sure, the novel always feels modern and English, somehow. Which is, to be sure, a great part of its appeal as well.
    • 5/5
      Jean-Baptiste Baratte is a modern man, well-versed in Voltaire and ready to leave his peasant upbringing behind. Eager to display his engineering talents, he meets the minister at Versailles to receive his first significant appointment. Confident, composed, although a bit cocky, he really can’t foresee any challenge his enlightened education can’t overcome. But, all his plans of illustrious success are somewhat hampered by the assignment he receives, one that is couched in a veiled threat. His job will be to demolish a dangerously aged Medieval church as well as removing the entire cemetery attached to it, on the Rue de Les Innocents. The minister explains,"It is poisoning the city. Left long enough, it may poison not just local shopkeepers but the king himself. The king and his ministers.Yes, my lord.It is to be removed.Removed?Destroyed. Church and cemetery. The place is to be made sweet again. Use fire, use brimstone. Use whatever you need to get rid of it."Given such a grotesque assignment, he quickly realizes that the challenge lies in more than just removing bodies. The task itself is monumental, given the crowded city and the few who wish to work on such a gory task. Baratte hesitates to begin, and as he settles in to his new job, he finds avoidance is his first impulse. What better time to buy a new suit and get drunk? A fashionable pistachio green suit that is purchased by trading in his father’s dark classic suit is a symbolic gesture that sets the scene for his new undertaking, and his new pal Armand, organ player at the Church, shows him exactly what and how to drink in order to forget the dead he’ll soon be faced with.Thus, the novel begins, with Baratte and Armand and several other characters dealing with the sentimental and awkward removal of a beloved church. Each character is fully developed, and fascinating in the way they interact. Besides the intriguing plot, just seeing the ensemble of unlikely individuals become close-knit among grave circumstances makes the narrative surprisingly enjoyable. Virtually everyone changes in some way, and none more than Baratte."But are his ambitions what they were? Are they, for example, less ambitious? And if so, what has replaced them? Nothing heroic, it seems. Nothing to brag of. A desire to start again, more honestly. To test each idea in the light of experience. To stand as firmly as he can in the world’s fabulous dirt; live among uncertainty, mess, beauty. Live bravely if possible. Bravery will be necessary, he has no doubt of that. The courage to act. The courage to refuse. "Given his thoughts above, you may imagine the fate of the pistachio suit.The story is unique and clever, and astonishingly fast-paced. I’m not normally a fan of the historical fiction genre, and I’m completely unfamiliar with this period in French history, but I was completely absorbed. However, I have to mention, in hopes of assisting others, that some reviews of the book (most notably the New York Times) seem to imply a supernatural element, of vampires and some sort of wolf-spirit. I didn’t get that at all. One strong wind was described as howling like a wolf, but that’s it. Two well-preserved bodies are inexplicably uncovered in the removal, but no indication or allusion is made to them of being vampires. So, while there is madness and community resistance to Baratte’s assignment, there’s nothing that feels otherworldly about the story.