SPOILERS - I don’t know if I have properly applied the tag
I heard and read loads of recommendations for this book, so I’ve just read it. I enjoyed it, and I loved the sort of ambiguous ending, but I was a bit confused with the author’s intentions around the Raphael character. We don’t get to know Raphael particularly well in the book, and that’s fine, but then towards the end of the book, we have an odd scene where two characters discuss all her great qualities for a few pages, then she gets two relatively lengthy comparisons to different statues, indicating to me the complexity of the feelings the main character has towards her. Problem is thst I, as the reader, didn’t feel any of those things towards the character. It felt like the author was shoehorning depth into the character for no reason. It really took me out of the story having to read how great other characters thought this character was. If you were watching a movie and you just had a relatively obscure character’s virtuous qualities listed like that, at the end of the movie no less, it would be bizarre.
I’ve heard authors talk about “show, don’t tell.” This seems like a great illustration of that point. The author doesn’t tell us that the main character is a good guy; we learn that and feel that ourselves. Sort of ruined the end of the book for me, which is a shame, because it was otherwise very good.
Thoughts?
I just finished the book this morning and loved it! Because we are reading Piranesi’s journal entries, it made sense to me that he is recounting his interaction with the other police officer on how great Raphael is and then sorting out his own feelings about her, his savior. She was only the second person he’s interacted with in years, second to the Other, who’s a condescending prick. I personally felt her sincerity and warmth towards Piranesi when she was explaining how she located him and found her to be genuine and endearing. Also, Piranesi was in the House for 6 years, and I would think it remarkable that a police officer could uncover a missing person’s whereabouts after so much time has passed. The amount of dedication it’d take for someone to risk their life to traverse dimensions, unsure of whether they’d be able to return, just to find another who has no personal relationship to them is a bit peculiar for humans.