"In Purity a refined and prominent African-American Engli sh professor's life is turned upside down when a new 'more black' professor is hired in his department and challenges his authenticity his marriage to a white woman and his entire way of life. This way of life consists of literature, booze, cocaine binges, and pedophilia. From realism to fantasy, Purity takes us on a journey from the Ivy League to the ante-bellum South to the fields of Ecuador and back again, ending on a note of shocking violence."--