I commenced reading another LLM book recommendation, Piranesi. I share my thoughts on the first two chapters on my Substack.
Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi comes in seven parts. I’ve read two. It’s the second of four recommendations an LLM gave me after I fed it ten books and authors I liked enough to inflict on other people. I wrote about that experiment, and about the first book I chose from the list, Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men.
I’ll call the parts chapters, because that’s how I read them, and it feels more natural to me. Clarke isn’t here to object, so this unilateral move happens in absentia.
So far the book is mostly world-building. There is a protagonist, Piranesi, a name he’s given and doesn’t seem particularly convinced is his. A second character is known only as the Other and who visits twice a week, enlisting Piranesi’s help in researching the Great and Secret Knowledge, whatever that turns out to be. I’ve spent two chapters trying to decide whether the Other is a foil, a mentor, an antagonist or something else. Please stand by…
Read the rest on Substack.
