Piranesi
Ratings1,267
Average rating4.2
It was impossible for me to put down this book, I read it in less than a week. The universe created by the author is captivating and even believable. The characters are few, but each one brings a lot to the story. I loved following Piranesi, who shares his original and enriching thoughts.
Format read: paperback (borrowed from a friend)
Reading time: 7+ hours
Tags: fantasy, magical realism, psychological, mystery, magic realism
Own a copy: no
Reread likelihood: 0/10 (not because I didn't like it, but because I don't think I'd ever need to reread it to ‘get it')
Summary
In a maze-like house filled with statues and the ebb and flow of tides lives Piranesi, a self-declared scientist who takes great pains in exploring the infinite labyrinth and writing about his discoveries. Piranesi shares his peaceful existence with another human, the Other, with whom he has weekly philosophical and scientific discussions. When Piranesi starts to read his old journals, he realizes that not all is at it seems in the house of many wonders.
Roman Ruins by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)
Review
[The review will contain spoilers as it is entirely impossible to avoid them with this type of narrative. Proceed at your own risk.]
Where to start with this book? There are so many categories for this book that it can be difficult to classify it. At first, it was very scifi to me, but then the low fantasy and soft magic elements kicked in, and then a psychological/murder mystery topped it all off. Our MC Piranesi spends the entire book clueless about the fact that he is a prisoner of this universe and that, ironically, the exit to the real world is most of the time only a few meters away from him. There were quite a lot of plot holes and loose ends in this tale. For example, why does Piranesi know what crips are, or what type of suits and patterns the Other is wearing, but he doesn't know what "police" means. These choices and gaps in his knowledge seem arbitrary as there's no definite pattern to his way of thinking or seeing the world.The system for dates and for different sections of the maze that he creates for himself makes sense and is structured, but many details about his knowledge make no sense. Why does he recognize the different types of birds that live in the house, but he doesn't know what the constellations are called? Why does he know the conventional days of the week such as Monday and Tuesday, but he doesn't know the names of months and has to rely instead on a system ("the 24th day of the second month of the year when the albatross came," for example)? Piranesi's selective amnesia seems to have no rhyme or reason to it, which makes the story hard to follow and breaks the immersion. The Other is also weirdly constructed. His search for the Knowledge with Piranesi seems to make sense at first, but then he abandons this cause entirely and becomes hyper-focused on the new visitor, 16. If his purpose in kidnapping and imprisoning Piranesi was for them to work out the secrets of the maze, then he has failed spectacularly at his one job. Also, what is the point in keeping Piranesi in this place other than to be comically evil? This whole plot point seems pointless since Piranesi doesn't contribute to this pursuit at all. Instead, Piranesi focuses on measuring the tides, cataloguing statues, and writing in his journal. All of these things, although important within the world of the House, are irrelevant to the Other's mission, so why keep Piranesi around, then? Why even kidnap Piranesi to begin with? He didn't need to stick someone into the House since he is able to visit it any time he wants. Granted, he can't stay too long in the House or else he'll start to forget things, but he still could have done his research without Piranesi (especially since Piranesi is pretty useless to his cause).Laurence, the arch-villain, appears in the novel for a couple of pages, and then is never seen again. What happened to him out in the real world? Was he not arrested for his part in the various crimes and Piranesi's kidnapping? Does he continue to exert his influence on unsuspecting university students? We don't know because there's never any follow up to his arc as a character and villain mastermind."My first great insight happened when I realised how much humankind had lost. Once, men and women were able to turn themselves into eagles and fly immense distances. They communed with rivers and mountains and received wisdom from them. They felt the turning of the stars inside their own minds. My contemporaries did not understand this. They were enamoured with the idea of progress and believed that whatever was new must be superior to what was old."-Laurence, in PiranesiThe House functions as a character itself, but its existence is never explained in a satisfactory way. The magic that sustains this place isn't explained beyond the vague "find a place from before reason appeared," and its rules are also not explained. For example, when someone visits this place, what happens to their physical body? It seems as though the person is transported completely, but there's one exception: Jimmy Ritter. He is found living behind a wall in Laurence's home, covered in his own urine and faeces, yet he was also 'living' in the House (as evidenced by the crisp packets left behind in the House and found by Piranesi). Why is he the only one who is not bodily transported (unless he is, and it's just not mentioned for some reason)?Then, if there is a passageway between this (our) world and the House, how come people don't just randomly stumble upon it? Who are all the dead in the House; random visitors, or Laurence's victims? How do people such as 16, who has never been to the House, navigate the maze and somehow always manage to find Piranesi? The same is true for Laurence who very easily finds Piranesi despite the fact that there are hundreds of halls and vestibules, staircases, floors, etc.Finally, the best question to describe the ending is 'why?' Why did we go through this journey alongside Piranesi only to have him become this strange 3rd version of himself; neither Matthew nor Piranesi, yet still connected to the House despite it all? It seems as though the novel, and the House in particular, is just one long, extended metaphor about mental illness and/or the inability to live in reality. The House offers an escape for all these characters who seek to better humanity by finding some kind of obscure, long-lost form of knowledge. However, the 'lesson' here is that eventually you have to go back and live in the real world. If the message of this novel was to promote the whimsy of the House (and therefore the unconscious mind), then it did not do its job very well. The reality is that the House is a horrific place filled with solitude, death, and constant danger. The real world is a much better place to be in.
Really interesting. Lovely, simple world-building. I have a soft spot in my heart for the main character.
Not much “happens” but the meandering chapters where Piranesi just records his day-to-day are so wholesome and charming that I don't mind the slow pace at all.
I do wish it came to more of a climax in the latter half.
I'm conflicted about this book. I really felt like I should love the ending, but something felt off about it. Most Importantly, However, The Frequent Frivolous Capitalization of Random Words Was Deeply Annoying. However, on the other hand, I LOVED the concept and the worldbuilding. The second half of the book is rally fun, because of all of Piranesi's inner confilct.
I'm conflicted about this book. I really felt like I should love the ending, but something felt off about it. Most Importantly, However, The Frequent Frivolous Capitalization of Random Words Was Deeply Annoying. However, on the other hand, I the concept and the worldbuilding. The second half of the book is rally fun, because of all of Piranesi's inner confilct.
3.5
Started out slow and dragged quite a bit, but it did catch me in the second half and the writing is amazing.
There is a thing that I know but always forget: Winter is hard.
What a bizarre little book. This is difficult to review without giving anything away, but I'll give it a shot. I went into this pretty cold, knowing only that it was somewhat related to mythology and fairly fantastic. I honestly think that was best, it took me a bit to settle into the narrative style but witnessing the story unravel while trying to figure out what was going on was very satisfying. Piranesi is an oddly satisfying character to follow, I appreciated his emphasis on logic and his understanding of the world around him. Although his naivety could have been frustrating, I found it more sad than anything else and I found him very sympathetic. Clarke did an excellent job with this and I'm glad it was the Women's Prize winner of 2021.
4.5 stars
I loved this book.
Susanna Clarke's writing really works for me. I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell when I read it years ago, so I was excited to read Piranesi. It didn't disappoint at all.
At first, it was a little bit confusing, but Piranesi's journey was absolutely captivating. There were wild theories swirling in my mind, about what was happening, and I enjoyed it so freaking much.
This is a masterpiece. A complex, unique, interesting, enigma that made my mind spin, and made me feel as confined as Piranesi was in this weird world. I loved every second of it, even when it made me doubt if I was smart enough for the ride.
Such a great book it was. One among “those” books in which I couldn't contain my excitement to know what might happen next.
I'm not sure what it is but the writing put me off a bit. Maybe because it was written like a journal and I was not expecting that? I think I prefer a story with more dialogue and less like a journal filled with thoughts the whole time. I also didn't connect with the characters or the world. It's an interesting world and the concept is very intriguing and I did enjoy reading about it but wasn't really into it.
This book was just absolutely bizarre.
This book opens on 1 of only 2 humans alive. This man, Piranesi, is living in this world that is just hallways and statues and changing tides. He meets once every week with the Other, the only other living human. Otherwise, they don't interact. Piranesi is just living his life when something comes up that throws a wrench in his entire perception of the world.
This book was so weird. The entire concept takes a bit to wrap your head around. I went into the story knowing absolutely nothing about the story, and I'm glad I did. My biggest critique with the book is the length. I just really wish it was a little longer because I didn't really feel that invested in Piranesi as a character. However, the story was very engaging and I couldn't put it down. I read it all in about 2 days and was reading every chance I got.
Overall, a fun, weird, interesting book that explores the human drive to survive, and also live a meaningful life. I would recommend as a quick read to any, even if you don't typically read fantasy.
“Piranesi” is Plato's Cave filtered through fantastical Regency imagery, then wrapped in an unsettled, blinkered epistolary structure. Despite being a fair bit shorter, it is full of the sentiment and horror that I loved about “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.” Absolute perfection.
Well, this is about this house, and...
Wait, no, there's this guy they call Piranesi...
Piranesi is in this giant labyrinth of many halls that has doors and windows and also has oceans, birds and fish, and many statues. As he maps out and studies his environment, he rediscovers how he got there in the first place and interacts with some extremely unpleasant academic types.
Part of the mystery is figuring out the situation itself, and the reader learns along with Piranesi.
Whatever it's about, Clarke is a very skilled writer and this is a beautiful book. I was enthralled with this right from the start. It's a unique little novel, I don't think I've read another I could compare to it.
Selfishly, I wish she were a bit more prolific. But to paraphrase Harlan Ellison, it's easier to read than to have ideas.
The basic argument in Piranesi (to quote Borges in The Approach to Al-Mutasim) is towards the “insatiable search for a soul through subtle reflections”, very obviously concerned with those interconnected realities and surrealities in ways that underlie its central mystery both from and towards the Self—honestly, if any part of the book is too obvious, that there is literally a character named Other. Though it might be more tempting to draw parallels with The Library of Babel as the more applicable of his short stories, what Piranesi entirely lacks is any kind of cosmic horror or awe (in the strictest sense) at either magnitude or utter lack of use-value, and it is better for it: where there is identity, symbolism, or observation it is metaphysical in itself, not as inherited from some “true” reference. Here Clarke starts us on the level of interpretation to show us the equal pretensions of reality, doubling the real/fictional, both with the reader against Piranesi and Piranesi against the journals, so that we can more clearly access the space between paper and imagination. The way to read this book (as with all magical realism) is to compromise, to superimpose concepts rather than grounding them to analyze their dissonance. The point is not to create either pure allegory or suspense but to force you to negotiate Piranesi's themes as unified with the process of following the plot, putting into practice the exact conclusion of the novel—collapsing worlds (or representations of the same world), being and envisioning all at once, as observer (Piranesi) and as object (MRS). And within the statues which are fundamental and deterministic towards their observers / “creators” you are able to see a kind of liminal purity: not ordained, or eternal, but transcendent regardless. Selves and reflections, and selves as reflections, and each person as a composite of both.
This book is lazy and pointless. There is really no meaning to all of this if not to generate income for the writer with very little mental effort. A total misuse of my time and of an Audible credit. I apologized to myself more than once but I still haven't totally forgiven myself for getting (and finishing) this book.
The first half of the book is slow - but right at the middle - it just picks up and does not slow down. It builds and delivers. I'll miss Piranesi - and the halls and the tides.