This is a delightful book in so many ways. Briefly described, a man is trapped in a sort of alternate reality which consists of a building of some stripe with an infinite number of cavernous rooms filled with gargantuan statues. The building is such that it has its own sky, its own ocean, its own ecosystem. The man, Piranesi, has completely acclimated to reality such that he never seems to question its existence or the existential contradictions of it. Through his interactions with the only other person in the reality, a man he refers to as The Other, the mysteries surrounding the building resurface and he must face a disturbing new reality.
Yes, but. The unravelling of reality is not where the beauty of this book is found. The loveliness here is in the descriptions of the building (referred to as the House) and how Piranesi has adapted not only to survival in the House, but building a belief system and a scientific philosophy out of it. It is both beautiful and, to my mind, quite realistic. The house contains dangers, but also great beauty; natural rhythms and random surprises. Confronted with this Piranesi has created both a scientific outlook -- he assiduously maps his world, tracks tides, observes causal connections -- and religious beliefs -- he has faith the house will provide for him, reveres the dead, accepts the fate the house grants. Clark's prose builds a beautiful aesthetic for all this, as one would expect from the author of Jonathan Strange & Dr. Norrell, so much so that I was somewhat disappointed that actual reality had to intrude on it.
The other blessed aspect of this book is that it is short. Clark offers no fluff, no padding, nothing to skip over. My hobby horse over the years has been that books are almost universally 30%-40% too long. Not Piranesi. God bless Clark for that.
Should you read Piranesi? Yes. You may not be as touched by it as I was, but I can;t imagine you regretting it. If there is a larger moral to the story I can't see it, it's just a lovely and intriguing way to spend some time.
