I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The storytelling was masterful and the themes developed were deep and relevant.

Basic Plot Recap

Piranesi is the protagonist who lives in a labyrinth of statues and flowing tides, which he calls ‘the House’. Over the course of the book, it is gradually revealed that Piranesi is actually Matthew Rose Sorensen – a researcher from England who has been trapped in an enchanted world accessible only by Magic ritual, and he has forgotten who he is.
The antagonist is Mr Ketterly, initially presented as the ‘the Other’ – a father figure for Piranesi and the object of ultimate trust, but who is eventually revealed to be using Piranesi in a quest for arcane secrets that he can take back to England and use for power. He is cruel and manipulative. Piranesi eventually figures this out and escapes the labyrinth yet never fully renounces its mark on his identity.

The story is told through the journal entries of Piranesi, and the exposition is gradual as he figures it out. Fascinatingly, he has figured it out before but forgotten again to the amnesiac effect of the House and due to the intervention of Ketterly. The House is beautifully constructed by Clarke as a captivating, wondrous, endless enchanted world.

Themes

Man’s relation to knowledge: The spiritualism, enchantment, wonder of Piranesi in his quest to know the House is contrasted with the mercenary, disenchanted, greedy, self-serving quest of Ketterly for power. The key passage here is on page 60. It is no accident that Ketterly shares a name with Uncle Andrew in C.S. Lewis’ The Magicians Nephew, who has the same attitude. The same themes pop up in The Abolition of Man, and That Hideous Strength. The modern scientific endeavour is an attempt to conform reality to our will. To dominate and subjugate nature for our purposes. To make Man master of the universe. This is at odds with the Ancient worldview which saw the spiritual in everything, the enchantment in nature, the Beauty and the Goodness in the world and the pursuit of science and magic as the path to discovery of all this for its own sake, not as a means to power. Further the purpose was conforming the self to Ultimate Reality, not the other way around. There is a deeper idea here of the central sinful conceit of humanity being the thirst for knowledge as power and domination, independent of God. The fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is why Man’s relationship with God and indeed his creation (Nature) is broken.

See pages 60, 88, 148.

Bare Humanity: Clarke asks the question: What worldview and beliefs drives Piranesi’s actions and rituals, since he is stripped of all culture and memory? What is the default spiritualism of a Tabula Rasa human? Clarke suggests that there is an ancient, in-built religiosity that exists beneath our sophisticated culture and modernity. This is seen in Piranesi’s respect for (and even worship of) the House. This naturally flows into his scientific endeavours – seeking to understand the tides and map out the halls. It is also seen in his respect for the dead and an instinctive desire to tend to their bodies and preserve their memories. See pages 5, 8, 17, 100, 112, 214, 228.

Identity: Clarke explores to what extent memory is necessary for identity. Piranesi starts with no notion of Matthew Rose Sorensen, yet by the end he is brought back into the real world and expected to be Matthew Rose Sorensen. On page 229, Piranesi prepares to enter the real world and first removes all his ornaments (seashells, etc.) from his hair, then re-adorns himself with them. Even after re-entering the world, Piranesi continues to refer to Matthew Rose Sorensen in the third person and holds his identity distinct from him. See pages 238, 239.

There are several other minor themes, including the artistic idealisation of characters and mythology and their finding reality in the real world. “Here you can see only a representation of a river or a mountain, but in our world – the other world – you can see the actual river and the actual mountain” – Raphael, page 222. This is further developed in the last chapter as Piranesi begins to see real-life personifications of the statues in the halls.

Overall a fantastic read, highly engaging, beautify, poignant, and though provoking.