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sophia_sol) wrote2020-11-01 10:25 am
sophia_sol) wrote2020-11-01 10:25 am
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
Susanna Clarke's first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, is possibly one of my favourite books I've ever read. It came out 16 years ago and I have been waiting ever since for her to publish another novel. FINALLY IT IS HERE. Piranesi is very much its own thing, but there are some similarities to JS&MN in some of the things it does particularly well. Clarke is so good at balancing the numinous and the real in a way that works for me, and at immersing the reader in a world.
Piranesi is a book about a man called Piranesi who lives in a House, an enormously extensive and labyrinthine structure filled with magnificent statues and its own weather and also an ocean. The House is Piranesi's whole world. Other than him there are fourteen other people in the House, thirteen dead and one Other who is the only living person he knows.
Piranesi loves the House, values his friendship with the Other, and feels highly fulfilled by his endless work at cataloguing and understanding everything he can of what the House contains. But of course the status quo cannot be maintained forever.
This book is fascinating and lovely and odd and touching, and hugely immersive for such a (relatively) short novel. I was absolutely transported and riveted, and when I finished the book I felt a kind of a loss that I had to leave the world of the book behind.
What happened during the ending of the book felt bittersweet to me though. Through Piranesi's eyes I came to love the House so much, that it felt to me like a huge loss for him to make his permanent home in our world. But of course he can see the beauty and kindness of our world too, because it's intrinsic in the way he approaches things that is able to find the meaning and the good in everything he sees. I love him so much.
Having taken a scroll a little while ago through the tumblr tag and other reader responses, it seems clear to me that everyone finds different literary and cultural resonances in this book; there's a lot going on beneath the surface. But you don't need to catch any of the allusions and parallels and metaphors for it to still read beautifully. It's not gatekeepy about its assumptions of the reader's prior knowledge the way the Western canon can sometimes be, it just invites you to openheartedly explore what the book has to offer you, the way Piranesi explores his world for meaning. It's wonderful.
Note: contains a Good Police Officer and an Evil Gay
Piranesi is a book about a man called Piranesi who lives in a House, an enormously extensive and labyrinthine structure filled with magnificent statues and its own weather and also an ocean. The House is Piranesi's whole world. Other than him there are fourteen other people in the House, thirteen dead and one Other who is the only living person he knows.
Piranesi loves the House, values his friendship with the Other, and feels highly fulfilled by his endless work at cataloguing and understanding everything he can of what the House contains. But of course the status quo cannot be maintained forever.
This book is fascinating and lovely and odd and touching, and hugely immersive for such a (relatively) short novel. I was absolutely transported and riveted, and when I finished the book I felt a kind of a loss that I had to leave the world of the book behind.
What happened during the ending of the book felt bittersweet to me though. Through Piranesi's eyes I came to love the House so much, that it felt to me like a huge loss for him to make his permanent home in our world. But of course he can see the beauty and kindness of our world too, because it's intrinsic in the way he approaches things that is able to find the meaning and the good in everything he sees. I love him so much.
Having taken a scroll a little while ago through the tumblr tag and other reader responses, it seems clear to me that everyone finds different literary and cultural resonances in this book; there's a lot going on beneath the surface. But you don't need to catch any of the allusions and parallels and metaphors for it to still read beautifully. It's not gatekeepy about its assumptions of the reader's prior knowledge the way the Western canon can sometimes be, it just invites you to openheartedly explore what the book has to offer you, the way Piranesi explores his world for meaning. It's wonderful.
Note: contains a Good Police Officer and an Evil Gay