Piranesi (2020)
Second novel by fantasy author Susanna Clarke, following her debut Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which I haven't read but must have been popular enough to get a television series on the BBC that I haven't seen either.
Piranesi is a lean book of a bit under 300 pages. It's written as a series of diary entries from a young man with no recollection of his prior life who has been inhabiting a strange, endless building for about five years. The building consists of three floors worth of large halls, the lowest of which is flooded by sea water, the topmost one which has clouds passing through it. The halls are filled with all sorts of statues, the only other life forms keeping him company being birds, fish and a mysterious man the narrator calls "The Other" who sporadically shows up to ask for his assistance in his search for some supernatural power he is convinced can be found in this mysterious megastructure.
On face value you'd assume Piranesi's primary hook would be the mysteries surrounding this strange world, the narrators origin and the nature of "The Other's" quest. And those are what technically makes up the novels plot, but it's all relatively incidental. Piranesi, at its core, is not so much a supernatural mystery as it's a fantastical version of a shipwrecked survivors tale. Clarke is less concerned with the supernatural metaphysics and the minor conspiracy that led to the protagonist being stranded in this otherwordly labyrinth as she is with his day to day survival, the spirituality he develops without the context of our world, the way he relates to this strange place that is the only home he can remember, the way his personality takes shape.
And it is quite an interesting personality. Piranesi (which isn't technically the protagonist's name, but it is what the only other human he knows calls him) is a bright and curious person, inquiring and documenting this sparse world that seems to consist of nothing but stone, marble, water and some plant and animal life with a mix of childlike wonder and scientific interest. Many of his diary entries are devoted to decriptions of the houses many statues, the ebb and flow of the tides, the behaviour of the birds and fish, the way he makes clothes and tools from fish leather and seaweed and the way he finds meaning and spiritual fulfilment in this life.
All of which makes the actual plot feel a bit obligatory, in that it helps the book, short as it is, maintain a sense of forward progression and potentially inspire some curiosity, even if I wouldn't go as far as to call it intrigue. As it gradually unravels its backstory and the why and how of its premise it employs some reasonably compelling, if mostly cliche, plot beats about scientific hubris, cult mentality, gaslighting, misguided ambition... it's all fine, really, but none of it is stuff you haven't seen before and neither is its eventual resolution.
Piranesi was an entertaining read that never overstaid its welcome, even if its narration was overall more compelling than its narrative. As a somewhat abstract (if far from experimental) take on a sort of Robinson Crusoe story from the viewpoint of a character who represents humanity at its best, but stripped to its bare essentials, it conjures up some compelling imagery and emotionally and intellectually resonant themes. I can't say anything about it left me extraordinarily impressed but it was more than worth the relatively minor amount of time I put into it.
Second novel by fantasy author Susanna Clarke, following her debut Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which I haven't read but must have been popular enough to get a television series on the BBC that I haven't seen either.
Piranesi is a lean book of a bit under 300 pages. It's written as a series of diary entries from a young man with no recollection of his prior life who has been inhabiting a strange, endless building for about five years. The building consists of three floors worth of large halls, the lowest of which is flooded by sea water, the topmost one which has clouds passing through it. The halls are filled with all sorts of statues, the only other life forms keeping him company being birds, fish and a mysterious man the narrator calls "The Other" who sporadically shows up to ask for his assistance in his search for some supernatural power he is convinced can be found in this mysterious megastructure.
On face value you'd assume Piranesi's primary hook would be the mysteries surrounding this strange world, the narrators origin and the nature of "The Other's" quest. And those are what technically makes up the novels plot, but it's all relatively incidental. Piranesi, at its core, is not so much a supernatural mystery as it's a fantastical version of a shipwrecked survivors tale. Clarke is less concerned with the supernatural metaphysics and the minor conspiracy that led to the protagonist being stranded in this otherwordly labyrinth as she is with his day to day survival, the spirituality he develops without the context of our world, the way he relates to this strange place that is the only home he can remember, the way his personality takes shape.
And it is quite an interesting personality. Piranesi (which isn't technically the protagonist's name, but it is what the only other human he knows calls him) is a bright and curious person, inquiring and documenting this sparse world that seems to consist of nothing but stone, marble, water and some plant and animal life with a mix of childlike wonder and scientific interest. Many of his diary entries are devoted to decriptions of the houses many statues, the ebb and flow of the tides, the behaviour of the birds and fish, the way he makes clothes and tools from fish leather and seaweed and the way he finds meaning and spiritual fulfilment in this life.
All of which makes the actual plot feel a bit obligatory, in that it helps the book, short as it is, maintain a sense of forward progression and potentially inspire some curiosity, even if I wouldn't go as far as to call it intrigue. As it gradually unravels its backstory and the why and how of its premise it employs some reasonably compelling, if mostly cliche, plot beats about scientific hubris, cult mentality, gaslighting, misguided ambition... it's all fine, really, but none of it is stuff you haven't seen before and neither is its eventual resolution.
Piranesi was an entertaining read that never overstaid its welcome, even if its narration was overall more compelling than its narrative. As a somewhat abstract (if far from experimental) take on a sort of Robinson Crusoe story from the viewpoint of a character who represents humanity at its best, but stripped to its bare essentials, it conjures up some compelling imagery and emotionally and intellectually resonant themes. I can't say anything about it left me extraordinarily impressed but it was more than worth the relatively minor amount of time I put into it.
