![]() ![]() It takes a fairly simple concept that's been done many times before and somehow manages to turn it into the most obscure and confounding tale. I marvel at stories that take complex and intricate ideas and turn them into something easily understood. I know not every book is for every reader, and this one definitely isn't for me. I expected creative and original, but I only ended up with derivative and unsatisfying. I don't mind being taken for a ride, but the destination had better be worth it. The how's and why's are just handwaved away. Keeping the reader in this haze-like, confused state for as long as possible is the goal of this story.Īnd when we do reach the end, no actual explanation of the logistics are given. So to prevent the reader from figuring things out early, the book is written such that it maximumly obscures everything. Perhaps if you didn't know the book's genre going in (not sure how you'd be able to swing that though), this development would come as a surprise. This book clearly leads you in one direction, and the reveal is exactly what you would expect from it. For me, a twist means that the story is leading the reader in one direction, but then a development happens that takes the story in a completely different, unforeseen direction. The only reason I kept going is the promise of that great twist.Īnd here, my expectations were wrong too. Every time I put it down, I had no urge to pick it back up. It took me three days of dedicated reading time to get through it. Lots of readers report reading it in one sitting because they couldn't put it down. When the writing is such that it isn't meant to be understood or remembered, but rather just skimmed to reach the end, then why am I even reading it? Sure, I wiled away some time turning the pages, but I ultimately come away unchanged, and for me, that is the worst result a story can achieve.įor such a short book, this sure was a slog. So what's the problem? Well, for me, I just don't see a point to reading like that. I'll be honest, I barely understood most of the sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, no matter how much I concentrated or how many times I reread it. But here, the descriptions are in combination with writing I couldn't make heads or tails of. After all, I've read plenty of books like that and still eked out some enjoyment. But I soon grew tired and just proceeded to read without retaining.Īnd it wouldn't be a big deal if the only issue with this book is its excessive descriptions. But that is the majority of this book! It was tolerable for the first thirty pages, when I worked hard to read and reread each description slowly so that I may keep straight every hall, statue, vestibule, tide, fish, and bird encountered. I know, I can't believe I just admitted such a thing publicly. Unfortunately, none of those turned out to be true for me.įor one thing-and please forgive for saying this-I just don't find endless descriptions of halls, statues, vestibules, tides, fish, and birds to be that interesting. ![]() How no one had ever seen a story like this before. Going into Piranesi, I had heard nothing but great things about it. So if you feel differently, please don't throw rotten vegetables at me. Obviously, I'm an outlier and my thoughts here are decidedly in the minority. ![]() Ok, let me start by first apologizing to everyone who loves this book. She lives in Cambridge with her partner, the novelist and reviewer Colin Greenland. Another, "Mr Simonelli or The Fairy Widower," was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award in 2001. One, "The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse," first appeared in a limited-edition, illustrated chapbook from Green Man Press. She has published seven short stories and novellas in US anthologies. There she began working on her first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.įrom 1993 to 2003, Susanna Clarke was an editor at Simon and Schuster's Cambridge office, where she worked on their cookery list. She returned to England in 1992 and spent the rest of that year in County Durham, in a house that looked out over the North Sea. The following year she taught English in Bilbao. In 1990, she left London and went to Turin to teach English to stressed-out executives of the Fiat motor company. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and has worked in various areas of non-fiction publishing, including Gordon Fraser and Quarto. A nomadic childhood was spent in towns in Northern England and Scotland. Susanna Clarke was born in Nottingham in 1959. ![]()
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