Serena Alibhai’s Reviews > Piranesi > Status Update

“ one gets the sense of a huge darkness surrounding her; above all I get the sense that she is alone, perhaps by choice or perhaps, because no one else was courageous enough to follow her into the darkness.“

Tears spraying into my eyes at the thought. My only friend and I had hidden from her!

‘I am here! I am here!’ I shouted to the Empty Air. ‘Come back!’ I will hide no longer!’

“ I don’t think you can claim he was intellectually honest. He said he’d been to other worlds. He said other people had been there too. That’s not exactly honest, is it?“ There may have been a slight edge of superciliousness in my voice, which I suppose I would have done better to suppress, but I have always liked winning arguments.“

“ I explained that I was chiefly interested in transgressive ideas, and the people who formulate them, and how they are received by the various disciplines – religion, art, literature, science, math, mathematics, and so forth. “

“ I discovered that the act of remembering was extremely potent. My mind was immediately freed, my vision cleansed. The long, complemented ritual that I had prepared became completely unnecessary. I no longer saw or felt the rain. I was standing in the clear, strong sunlight of early childhood. The colours of the roses were supernaturally bright.”