Review: "Piranesi," Susanna Clarke

By Paul Carrier

It’s been a long wait, but Susanna Clarke has finally released another novel, following the 2004 publication of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a fantasy primarily set in early 19th century England.

Piranesi, Clarke’s latest, is a fantasy as well, but not a sequel. The protagonist is Piranesi, a young man who has been living for several years in a gargantuan, statue-filled building of endless vestibules and halls. The first floor is awash in a tidal sea and the third floor is the domain of clouds.

It is on the second floor that Piranesi lives, sharing  his domain with wild birds, human skeletons and the Other, a mysterious man who wants Piranesi’s help in researching a Great and Secret Knowledge supposedly stored in the cavernous labyrinth.

Piranesi has no recollection of his life before he entered what he lovingly calls “the House,” or how he got there. Nor does he know anything substantive about the Other, or the identities of the people whose skeletal remains he treats with great respect and tenderness. That changes over time in this memorable and mesmerizing blend of adventure, insight and mystery.

Review: "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell," Susanna Clarke

By Paul Carrier

At 782 pages in hardcover, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is no quick read. But this blend of fantasy and alternate history is eminently entertaining.

Published in 2004 and followed a decade later by a British TV miniseries, the novel tells the story of two initially allied but eventually estranged magicians who, in the early 19th century, try to revive a world in which magic was a commonplace and powerful facet of British life. And when I say “magic” I don’t mean card tricks.

This is earthshaking, life-altering, history-making stuff we’re talking about here (think Napoleonic Wars). The world Clarke creates is so thoroughly detailed that the novel comes with well over 100 footnotes.