TL;DR: Confusing and hard to follow at times, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke still delivers a solid story in a fanciful world.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3/4
Piranesi lives in a massive building, with multiple halls, rooms, and statues. He is alone, except for when the Other visits. The Other and Piranesi are on the hunt for Great and Secret Knowledge, although Piranesi has no idea what that is or why they should seek it. What follows is the unraveling of all that Piranesi knows and believes to be true.
I don’t know how I feel about this book. It was confusing and hard to follow, yet well written. The characters have depth, the world is interesting, and there is enough of a mystery to keep it interesting. However, it didn’t wow me in any way, which is why I give it 3.75 stars.
The Plot
Piranesi lives in a massive building, with multiple halls, rooms, and statues. Within it, the ocean and tides sometimes take over, and fishing is plentiful, if you know where to do it. There are also thirteen skeletons. Piranesi pays homage to them all.
Piranesi spends his days cataloging the different wings, fishing, and journaling. He occasionally spends time with the Other, a man who seems to know more than he says, but whom Piranesi is quite happy to spend the time with. This creates the total of fifteen people in Piranesi’s world, and he is quite happy to see someone other than the wildlife and statues that make up most of his days.
When the Other tells Piranesi that the sixteenth person is seeking to find him in the labyrinth of halls, warning him that this person is dangerous to Piranesi, truths unravel and bring to light who the Other is, who the sixteenth person is, and who Piranesi is as well.
Can Piranesi survive the twists of turns of not just the house, but of the people coming to visit it? And who is really his enemy?
What I liked & liked less
Piranesi is a kind person, who sees the world through the lens of wonder and amazement, almost like a child. Everything he does, he does from that perspective. However, his journey isn’t boring as he has to confront truths he didn’t think were his.
The Other, on the other hand, is quite quickly (for me) revealed to be the villain of the piece. He doesn’t have a lot of depth in the interactions and his motives seem odd, even after I know why he does what he does. I didn’t dislike him, but I wish I’d not figured it out as quickly as I had.
While I liked the world building and how Piranesi interacts with it, it also was incredibly confusing to me. I am, to be fair, spatially challenged, and could go the wrong way even with a compass and that could be why I got lost trying to follow Piranesi’s journey.
There are too many pages discussing the halls, setting up the world, and generally following Piranesi on his day to day tasks. I found it lacking in momentum and didn’t see the need to spend so much focus on that part of the book. It was the same reason I did not finish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, so it may just be a writing style that doesn’t work for me.
I came away from this book not really knowing what I thought about it and that too is a problem. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. It left a bland taste in my mouth and I am not someone who likes reading books that do that. But, it was well-written and I can see why people love it.
To Sum Up (Too Late!)
A bit slow, too confusing, but with a rich main character and interesting world building, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke was well written, but ultimately not written to my tastes. I would recommend it, especially for those who enjoyed her previous book, so for that reason, I gave it 3.75 stars.
About the Author(s)
Susanna Clarke was born in Nottingham in 1959. A nomadic childhood was spent in towns in Northern England and Scotland. She was educated at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and has worked in various areas of non-fiction publishing, including Gordon Fraser and Quarto. In 1990, she left London and went to Turin to teach English to stressed-out executives of the Fiat motor company. The following year she taught English in Bilbao.
She returned to England in 1992 and spent the rest of that year in County Durham, in a house that looked out over the North Sea. There she began working on her first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
From 1993 to 2003, Susanna Clarke was an editor at Simon and Schuster’s Cambridge office, where she worked on their cookery list. She has published seven short stories and novellas in US anthologies. One, “The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse,” first appeared in a limited-edition, illustrated chapbook from Green Man Press. Another, “Mr Simonelli or The Fairy Widower,” was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award in 2001.
She lives in Cambridge with her partner, the novelist and reviewer Colin Greenland.
If you wish to purchase this book, pick your vendor of choice here, or just cave to the man and get it from Amazon here.
Originally published on Feedium. This fills in the Stand Alone square on my Fantasy Bingo 2022 card.