Pure by Andrew Miller

I really liked this book - and that is despite it having a very weak story. Having a weak story might be a problem if the characterisation and feel of the novel weren't what carry it through and, in some very real sense, are the focus of the writer's ambition. In Pure, the feel of the age is the aim and it presents the end of a regime, the pre-labour of the new order coming, in the context of the cleansing of an ancient graveyard.

The symbolism of the protagonist's herculean task of clearing a putrid and illness inducing well of souls focused on a decrepit but venerated and still inhabited church writes small the social context of a withdrawing French state, a politically failing catholic church and the rise of the merchant class. That Miller has the graveyard (a catholic institution) cleared by Dutch workers (who are undoubtedly protestant - although the sense of this is never clear to their employer, even if he does have a passing familiarity with protestantism) should not be overlooked if you're trying to put together the underlying commentary on his story.

Yet it isn't a harsh critic of either church and state - neither bear down on the lives of individuals in the book more meanly than parents, strangers and, even, friends, all of whom act after their own fashion as humans tend to do.

What happens in this story? Some people clear a graveyard. How does it feel to the reader? As if the world was ending and something new was lurking, threateningly, just off stage waiting for its time to come, its tentacles slowly feeling their way through everything as they find their strength and confidence. This is atmosphere that rewards the simple pleasure of reading.