Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Source of book: Borrowed from my wife.

 

I needed a work of modern fiction, and my wife offered to find one in her collection. She hasn’t read this one (yet), but did enjoy Clarke’s first novel, the weapons grade doorstop, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which I probably should read sometime. 

 

I am unsure entirely how to write this post, because the book is very easy to spoil. I will give fair warning after I give enough of the premise to give an idea of the book, which is essentially what you can find from reading the cover. 

 

Clarke is one of those authors who started writing seriously later in life, and took her time with her first book - it took over a decade to research and write. I rather admire this: reinventing one’s self and following one’s dream takes some guts, and the world is often richer for this. 

 

The name of the book is fascinating too. It comes from the 18th Century Italian artist, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who created pictures of labyrinth-like prisons that kind of resemble the setting of this book. 

The Round Tower by Piranesi

The title character is indeed called Piranesi, although it is not his name. He is an inhabitant of a strange alternative world, one where there are endless halls and vestibules in the classical style, filled with statues, none of which are alike. They seem to be a variety of figures, many of which are from classical mythology - no surprise - but others which are recognizable from more modern literature, or everyday 20th Century life. 

 

The world has three levels. The upper level is usually full of clouds. The lower level has an ocean complete with tides in it. Piranesi lives in the middle level, among the statues. He eats fish and seaweed from the ocean, and charts its tides - the ocean periodically floods the middle levels. 

 

There is one other living person in this world, who Piranesi calls “The Other.” This person meets with Piranesi twice a week, and enlists him to explore the halls in search of the “Great and Secret Knowledge,” which will give him immense power. 

 

Okay, that’s enough to give the idea from the cover. It’s an interesting world. Stop here if you want to avoid any spoilers. 

 

Interestingly, there are two quotes on the cover page. One of them is real, and is from The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis. 

 

“I am the great scholar, the magician, the adept, who is doing the experiment. Of course I need subjects to do it on.” 

 

All of us who grew up on the Narnia books are well aware of the context of that quote, and who says it. The mad experimenter, “Uncle” Andrew Ketterley, devoid of morality and intent on acquiring power, to his nephew and the nephew’s friend, when he sends them away to an unknown parallel universe. 

 

The other quote is from a fictional character in the book, Laurence Arne-Sayles, another amoral, criminal, slimy character who uses others for his experiments. I won’t repeat his quote, but it reappears later in the book. 

 

Now, just running a quick search on that name turned up an interesting Reddit thread speculating on a potential real-life model for this character. The two that seem possible are Aleister Crowley and William S. Burroughs. Both fit the pattern of “transgressive thinkers,” occultists, homo- or bisexual, who eventually committed crimes with seemingly zero conscience. Crowley has the advantage of being British. (Clarke is British, and the book has its real-world scenes in and around London.) 

 

To make the parallels with Narnia even clearer, there is another amoral character who has the last name of Ketterley, and it is implied that he is a descendent of the Lewis character. And also, the alternative universe seems to bear a significant resemblance to The Wood Between the Worlds. This is impossible to miss if you are a Narnia fan, so this may not even be a spoiler. It felt obvious even 10 pages in. 

 

The great mystery of the book, of course, is “what the hell is going on?” I mean, a world with two males and a few skeletons is clearly not a sustainable world. Piranesi clearly is missing memories. And what of this “Great and Secret Knowledge”?

 

One particular line has stayed with me: 

 

I believe that I was mad - or that I had been mad - or else that I was becoming mad now. Whichever way it was, it was a terrifying prospect.

 

This is the real joy of this book. It takes place mostly inside Piranesi’s head as he writes in his journal. Clarke unfolds the truth ever so gradually over the course of the book, letting the reader guess at what has happened even as Piranesi himself starts to recover his own past. 

 

The descriptions are amazing as well. I really wanted to explore this world - the book could have been ten times as long, just to explore “The House.” Unsurprisingly, numerous readers have carefully created maps of the place, based on Piranesi’s meticulous descriptions. Here is one: 

 

There are still questions unanswered by the book. Piranesi never completely recovers his memory, and the fates of various people mentioned remain implied and guessed at rather than uncovered. There is also much to know about The House, and how it seems to continue to draw its inspiration from the real world. A bit like Narnia, I suppose, which many of us wished we could more fully explore. 

 

(This, by the way, is why The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the best book in the series. Just saying.) 

 

Piranesi isn’t a long book. It’s on the borderline between novel and novella. Apparently, the author developed chronic fatigue syndrome before writing it, and decided to tackle a shorter book rather than try to write a sequel to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Which is fair enough. Better to leave the reader wanting more than bogged down in tedium. 

 

In any case, I found it to be a compelling and enjoyable book, a fast read that fit well in alternation with the more heavy and serious books I am reading for Black History Month.