Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Piranesi begins with short, staccato speech. The narrator almost seems to be speaking pidgin English. If you haven’t read Susanna Clarke’s other works you might be forgiven for thinking you’re reading badly written prose. But then another character enters—the quasi-mythological “Other”. He seems quite able to communicate in a modern and realistic way. And, as the text unfolds, you realize that you are simultaneously reading a mystery about a twenty-first century disappearance and a meditation on the consciousness of ancient and modern humanity. I won’t spoil the mystery, but Clarke’s choice to set into prose an understanding of the differences between antiquity and the modern world is ingenious. The statues, the ancestor worship, the diminution of personality and the exaltation of the symbolic—all of these and more are rendered from an effort at the ancient worldview. As for the mystery, the reader is given enough clues before the final unveiling to keep it interesting. Even Piranesi as the narrator’s name is a hint: he was an Italian artist of the eighteenth century who created a series of depictions of imaginary labyrinths; exactly the type of world the narrator explores. If you like mythology, mysteries and puzzles you are certain to like Piranesi. Those with a philosophical interest in how consciousness has varied throughout history will also want to read this book. Intellectual without losing the enjoyability of a good detective story! Highly recommended.