Piranesi

The trials and tribulations of great expectations by the reader.

I personally thought that Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell as good a fantasy as I had ever read. I also came to it rather late so it is in my recent reading memory. With that I was very keen to read Piranesi.

As I type these words, Piranesi has nearly 77,000 ratings at 4.29 on this here Goodreads. It smashes the above-mentioned Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell out of the park in popularity. I wonder why. It is a good read and I enjoyed it but in my opinion it is not even in the same league for depth of writing and storytelling.

It is pointless me even attempting to explain the story that is Piranesi. After that many reviews, if anyone gets this far with what I have to say, they have either read it or at least read a synopsis elsewhere. The story is not as complex as I thought it might be in the end. The first half came across to me as a dream sequence with some ham fisted dialogue between the two main characters. That may say more about me than anything. Why? It was not hamfisted and served a purpose to the final half of the tale told. That I suppose says stick with reading if one is unsure where it is going.

In the end though, I also think I may have made an error in reading this a little too quickly after another fantasy that I adored. The Mules Foal by Fontini Epanomitis is obscure and was a chance find for free in a neighbourhood street library. I paid top dollar for Piranesi. As enjoyable as Piranesi is the obscure madness of the unknown novel was far more interesting in concept and delivery. Maybe if I had read Piranesi first I may have felt different? Also, why does a work such as The Mules Foal just become such an obscure footnote when it is conceptually so much stronger than many others in its genre? Trials and tribulations indeed.

Be that as it may, I do recommend Piranesi to anyone that likes Fantasy. It is well written, the descriptive element is wonderful, and it does tie a good story together in the end.