Reading: Piranesi (156/365)

[white_hart]

Susanna Clarke's second novel, Piranesi, is very different from her first, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Where Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was, famously, extremely long, and interweaves multiple characters' stories together, Piranesi is short, with a very small cast of characters. Like its predecessor, however, Piranesi features detailed, compelling worldbuilding and feels completely original.

The narrator of Piranesi lives alone in the House, a vast complex of stone halls, filled with statues, where the sea washes through the basement and clouds fill the first floor. He believes this to be the entire world; a world with only two living inhabitants the narrator himself and a man he knows only as the Other. (The Other calls the narrator "Piranesi", but the narrator does not believe that this is his name.) As the novel progresses, the narrator begins to uncover clues about his life before he came to the House.

I loved this. The writing is beautiful, the descriptions of the House are wonderfully atmospheric, and I found the gradually unfolding plot compelling. It also felt peculiarly appropriate to be reading a book where living in solitary isolation is such a major theme now, after 14 months of lockdown. It must have been written well before the pandemic, but it felt incredibly timely.

Comments

[hilarita]

I should get hold of a copy and read it, because IIRC it's Hugo-nominated and I have a stoat to cast for it.

[white_hart]

It is indeed Hugo-nominated.

[alithea]

I must get around to reading it, I've had a copy sitting on my bookshelf sincd February!

I read an interview and apparently she's been really ill with some sort of mystery ME type illness and spent several years not able to leave the house, so she had prior experience of a lockdown style existence.

[white_hart]

Yes, I think I saw that interview. It's just weirdly coincidental timing!

[nineveh_uk]

I had no idea Piranesi was short. It makes me much more inclined to read it at the moment. (I have read a couple of longer and literary novels this year, but it's not like what happened to Thomas Cromwell was a surprise. )

[white_hart]

I haven't been able to bring myself to attempt The Mirror and the Light yet!

[nineveh_uk]

It is very good, though to my mind not quite as good as Bring Up the Bodies. I've found reading hard to concentrate on at times this year, annoyingly I have not been spending great swathes of time reading wonderful books on my metaphorical chaise longe and the Patrick O'Brien attempt was not a success*, but Mantel was oddly accessible despite the intimidating page count!

[white_hart]

Yes, I've also found reading hard to concentrate on and I am too daunted by the sheer length of TMatL, but I found Piranesi a really easy read.

[nineveh_uk]

Good to hear!

[perennialanna]

Do you think I could manage TMatL without re-reading the first two? Reading all three does daunt me rather, and I have read a lot of Tudor history over the years so should be able to remember who most people are.

[nineveh_uk]

I think so. I read the last two this year, but hadn't read Wolf Hall for +5 years (though saw the TV series). I have not done much Tudor history since age 12, so did occasionally go 'Who?' re. minor figures, but as you've read it I would expect you'd be completely fine on that front, and it doesn't matter over all if you're not.

[perennialanna]

This is excellent news for when I drag myself out of Heian Japan...

[nineveh_uk]

Who is currently being your guide to Heian Japan?

[perennialanna]

A re-read (after shelf tidying) of Liza Dalby's Tale of Murasaki has led to Sei Shonagon and a new-ish translation of the Tales of Genji, which I am dipping into alternately.

Had either forgotten or never realised (probably the latter) just how very gay the Dalby novel is.

[serriadh]

It's short and both dwellable and gulpable, depending on your preferences. I read it in two evenings but I am going to re-read it again much more slowly soon.