Shit We’ve Read is back from our short hiatus! This month we discuss Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, a lyrical tale of a man who lives in a house with infinite rooms and a labyrinth of halls. We talk about the ego, the super-ego, and the id, draw parallels to quarantine, and scold Jason for, again, not watching another well-known movie.
Goodreads Synopsis
Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.
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