This is a very good novel. By coincidence I read it right after Titus Groan and they make a great pair, both featuring enormous buildings as characters. Piranese is much shorter and less evocative of mood. The story is not forced too much, I would have preferred a deeper sense of the house and Piranese’s connection to it. The wrapping things up also felt unnecessary, I would have been fine with more open future. It could have also been expanded to do more in the wrapping up, Piranese communing in the house with Poor Ritter in a more extended fashion. Suzanne Clarke feels these worlds are important and the consciousness needed for them worthwhile, but for most people I think the house would be a horror or prison. Why it was not for Piranese is worth saying more about.

I rarely ever say this, but I want to read Piranese again soon. I wish I could read the journals describing the statues, halls and vestibules.