The Navi-Gator: a Gator's Guide to Library Resources

Location: Youngstown Campus Pages: 245

 

 

A man is alone in a vast Romanesque house gradually sinking into the surrounding seas.  The house is filled with strange statues and even stranger human skeletal remains.  The man wanders the house as if it were the only thing in the world or a deserted island.  He wears only rags and struggles to survive.  The only time he sees another human is when an impeccably dressed man he calls the Other comes to visit.  The Other is an older man who calls this stranded man Piranesi.  The Other gives Piranesi scant supplies and assesses his memory by asking him a series of strange questions.  Piranesi never questions why the Other is better dressed than he or where the Other goes when not with Piranesi. He just assumes that the Other is more blessed by the House (which Piranesi has deified).  The Other gets upset at Piranesi if Piranesi questions him about matters that do not concern the Other.  Life seems mysterious but okay for Piranesi, until one day, he determines that the Other and he are not the only ones dwelling in the House.  The person that introduces themselves to Piranesi will challenge everything Piranesi knows of this world.

 

This book gives all of the fall vibes without really taking place in the fall.  It's subtly creepy.  You truly feel unmoored over the mysterious House including the presence of those skeletons, one obviously a child.  You feel the chill barrenness of the house as it doesn't have any real vegetation inside of it.  The Other is a benevolent monster as he gaslights Piranesi. Piranesi, himself, is an unintentional, unreliable narrator because he naively doesn't have any of the information he truly needs.  Fall is such a perfect time to read books with unreliable narrators.  When the Other questions Piranesi, we know almost immediately that both of these men are not who they seem to be, and we don't know why.  We don't know why the Other is impeccably dressed while Piranesi is wearing rags.  We don't know why there are skeletons in the house. The House seems like it's part of a totally different world or time but why, then, does the Other have access to wristwatches and tennis shoes?  

 

In this book, the vibes are the thing, not characterization. Piranesi feels like a blank slate that everyone writes on, even the reader. The Other reveals nothing to us.  The stranger that comes is the only one with some immediate character traits, but we meet them so late, that it's welcome to have them. The setting, and how Piranesi describes it, is so atmospheric and revered that we can't be moored in a time and a place. The first 20 pages is relatively plotless as Piranesi gives us an overview of the world and his odd day-to-day life.  This plotlessness seems meandering in such a short book.  Stick with it, because you will slowly come to realize you're reading a masterpiece.  So if you like to be subtly spooked, if you want to revel in this chilling mystery, if you want to read something truly original, this book is perfect for you.