Source: Goodreads

Book Review: Piranesi

“The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.”

It’s the first day of the fifth month in the year the albatross came to the south-western hall. Piranesi wakes up in a House made of endless halls and vestibules, where the sea floods the rooms and statues watch in silence. He then goes to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of three tides, carefully, gracefully, with care.

If the paragraph above makes little sense to you, do not worry. You will understand the meaning once you read the book. Piranesi feels like peeling an onion; there is always a hidden layer beneath. The more you turn the page, the more you understand who Piranesi is, why he is there, and what this world is about. This is a book I recommend reading without knowing anything beforehand.

I find it difficult to write a review without revealing details, and I do not want that. Just know that this book feels like a movie. I can’t help but long to be in the house myself, admiring its surreal beauty and vastness.

“In my mind are all the tides, their seasons, their ebbs and their flows. In my mind are all the halls, the endless procession of them, the intricate pathways. When this world becomes too much for me, when I grow tired of the noise and the dirt and the people, I close my eyes and I name a particular vestibule to myself; then I name a hall. I imagine I am walking the path from the vestibule to the hall. I note with precision the doors I must pass through, the rights and lefts that I must take, the statues on the walls that I must pass.”

I am by no means a literary expert, so I unfortunately cannot articulate what makes the prose beautiful. The word choices are not advanced, but the way the sentences flow is just perfection, almost as surreal as the house it depicts. The writer trusts the reader. It allows silence, repetition, and wonder to do the work. This is not a book about tragedy, but I find my eyes teary along the way.

Piranesi is strange. It is quiet. It asks for patience. But if you are willing to slow down and let the House guide you, it offers experience that feels rare, gentle, and surreal.

I will close this review with the book’s most memorable line, as I opened this review with.

“The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.”

6/5