Review: Piranesi

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Hooter: Beautiful world, very long walk.

Piranesi is a strange book. Very strange. The whole thing takes place in this enormous House with endless rooms, corridors, statues, staircases and an ocean that periodically floods parts of it. Piranesi lives there and spends his days exploring the House, documenting the statues, the tides and the birds. The world Clarke has created is probably the best thing about the book. It feels completely removed from anything familiar, and there were moments when I could actually picture myself walking through those enormous halls. The statues in particular are such a nice touch because every room seems to contain something bizarre and beautiful. There is something almost dreamlike about the whole place.

My problem was getting through the journey. It felt very long and very slow, especially in the first half. I understood that the slow pace was part of the experience and that we were supposed to discover the House at the same pace as Piranesi, but I found myself waiting for something to happen quite often. Once the mystery around who Piranesi really is and what the Other is doing starts to unfold, things become much more interesting. But by then I had already spent a lot of time wandering around the House. I can appreciate what Clarke was trying to do, and I really liked the idea behind the book, but I didn't enjoy the reading experience as much as I expected to. For me, it was a fantastic world that took a very long time to get anywhere

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