Claire Fuller's Reviews > Pure

Miller does an excellent job of bringing pre-revolution Paris to life. Jean-Baptiste Baratte is tasked with digging up and disposing of the bodies in a Parisian churchyard which is so full, the air around it is poisoned and the dead are bursting into the cellars of the surrounding houses. Along the way we meet many people including Baratte's friends, landlords, and lover. The book is crammed full of incident, metaphor and symbolism and bustles along like the overfull streets, the only duff note coming when one of Baratte's friends does something which seems so out of character it is as though Miller included it because he felt the book needed a kick at that point. But I don't mean to be unkind - I really enjoyed it, especially how the ending echoed the beginning.