Book SPOILER Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clark
Commentary and review on a delightful fantasy novel.
This was a fun book.
Sounds generic, I know, but honestly, it was a breath of fresh air. It was different and well written.
I usually employ my skimming skills to read super fast, but I took my time and read every word of this one just because I wanted to. Not to say that the books I skim aren’t worth my time, because I’ve read some bangers that I’ve skimmed.
Looking at you, The Hunger.
Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.
This is my original review on Goodreads:
“There's a quote on the copy that I have that proclaims Piranesi as destined to be a classic piece of fantasy. While I wholly disagree with this statement, I fully loved this book.
Piranesi as a character, is written as a very logical, organized, and child-like curator of a massive "house" full of infinite rooms that occasionally flood due to the ocean trapped inside of it. It's such a fascinating world to explore with Piranesi's unique way of cataloging time, taking notes, and memorizing the labyrinthian halls of the house. Not to mention, his cryptic meetings with "The Other" left me wanting to keep reading and learn more about this puzzle.
I read it so fast I'm almost sad it's over.”
Please do NOT read ahead if you don’t want spoilers— you have been warned! :)This book is written in epistolary format, with the titular character, Piranesi, recording his days in a journal. It makes sense in this world, as we are immediately shown that Piranesi is relatively alone in this world, and has time to document his days when not caring for the infinite rooms.
Each entry is named after his own numbering system, which he admits he created when he thought it didn’t make sense anymore to label the dates as we know them. For example, each “chapter” (journal entry) is named something like “Entry for the eighth day of the sixth month in the year the albatross came to the South-Western halls.”
There is an ocean trapped inside the “house” (where the infinite rooms reside), and Piranesi knows when it will come and where. He remembers everything about every room and the details of every statue. There are also mysterious skeletons throughout the house that he cares for. If I recall, there are 13 skeletons, himself, and The Other, which Piranesi counts as a population of 15.
His knowledge of the “house” is impressive to the one known as The Other… a man who visits twice a week. In fact, Piranesi is the name The Other gave to him, and he claims not to know what his name is but knows that it’s not Piranesi.
The two meet for “research purposes” during these times, but it seems as though the output of said research is most beneficial to The Other. He is also described as older, handsome, clean, and well-put-together. All of these clues are interesting, which made me suspect the man from the start.
For a good chunk of the book, Piranesi talks about daily living, including fishing, taking care of the skeletons, and meeting with The Other. During one particularly suspicious meeting, The Other tells Piranesi that there is another person in the house and not to ever talk to them because the person wants to hurt The Other.
This bit of information intrigues Piranesi, and he starts referring to the stranger as “number 16.”
As he continues his life as usual, he encounters random messages from the mystery person. With these encounters, he questions whether he should interact with them, going back and forth, deleting messages, trying to piece them together again while the Other gets increasingly agitated.
Eventually, Piranesi runs into number 16, and it turns out that her name is Sarah Raphael, and she is a police officer looking for Matthew Rose Sorenson. The name stirs a memory in Piranesi of a former life as a journalist, who happened to visit the Other (Dr. Ketterley) for an interview that ultimately landed him in this house.
I’m not sure if I can coherently explain the next part, so bear with me!
The house is an alternate universe. Dr. Ketterley had been working on the theories of how to access this universe and to traverse it as he pleased. Piranesi, or Matthew Rose Sorenson, was one of his victims, whom he trapped inside during the above mentioned interview.
All of this comes to light as Matthew and Sarah Raphael evade a rampaging Dr. Ketterley within the house during a substantial ocean flood. They are able to climb the statues, while Dr. Ketterley is swept away by the tide. Matthew finds his broken body, and commits to taking care of it, just like the other skeletons in that universe.
The book concludes with Matthew as Piranesi in the real world, unable to relate to his family. He takes a former victim back to the house, but now that he knows how to go in and out, he agrees to feed the former victim and let him stay in the house. Ultimately, Matthew is a changed man, and he has become Piranesi, unable to break away from the house himself.
I’ll now address the first statement I made in the Goodreads review:
“There's a quote on the copy that I have that proclaims Piranesi as destined to be a classic piece of fantasy. While I wholly disagree with this statement, I fully loved this book.”
The reason I disagree with the statement is that I wouldn’t classify this as a true work of fantasy. While there are fantasy elements in it, the story is ultimately a case of kidnapping and transportation to another reality. The alternate reality is the fantasy portion of the book alone, as there is a “real world” tied to it.
Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or fiction like these are true works of fantasy (in my opinion) because the entirety of the world is 100% fictional.
The End.
That’s it! I recommend this book as a breezy read if you’re looking for some unique entertainment. I haven’t read this author’s other works, but ultimately, I’ve heard this is her best.
In my opinion, if you’re a fan of fantasy and the strange, do give Piranesi a try!
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