/lit/ - Literature

I just finished Piranesi, and I quite liked it. I think the best descriptor is that it is charming. It’s a really lovely book full of imagery that vividly stands out in your mind, probably due to a mixture of it being striking but also because the setting is relatively limited. But that’s kind of the most I can say for it. Which isn’t nothing, it’s still better than probably all but a couple of books I read this year, but it’s not a genuinely great book for me.

I hate to compare author’s works to each other rather than evaluating them on their own, but I think the comparison to Strange and Norrell helps to highlight what’s missing in Piranesi. Strange and Norrell is totally cohesive. I understand fully why each scene is there, I understand how they build into the broader themes and character development, and it is all a single monopotentiary bloc. Piranesi’s plot just doesn’t belong. The setting, the characters, the themes are all singing a tune together, and the plot doesn’t seem to know the rhythm. And I like the plot, I thought it was fairly gripping and that the style she used to dole it out in dribs and drabs was masterfully done, but it didn’t belong and so the book ends up being a collection of things I liked instead of a singly focused powerhouse.

Anyway, good book, everyone in here should definitely check it out, you’ll find it at your local Barnes & Noble’s fiction section, because it’s too good for them to shelve it with the Fantasy