Book: Susanna Clarke, “Piranesi” (2020) 

The narrator inhabits an endless maze of halls that are populated with classical statues and sometimes flooded with seawater. He does not know how he got there, or even remembers who he is, but mysterious events compel him to seek out the truth. Lyrical and atmospheric, it’s “The Bourne Identity” meets Charles Williams.

 

Movie: Charlie Chaplin, “City Lights” (1931) 

Years after the invention of synchronized sound dialogue, Chaplin still insisted on making this a “silent” movie. The result was a perfect film, so it seems he chose right. “The Tramp” befriends a drunk millionaire and romances a blind flower girl. Shenanigans ensue, running the gamut from sublime slapstick to bittersweet pathos. The finale is one of the greatest sequences ever put on celluloid.

 

Song: “Zefiro Torna” by Claudio Monteverdi (1632)

A chaconne-madrigal for two voices about the coming of spring, full of Renaissance warmth and bouncy syncopation. Throughout the long Michigan winters, Monteverdi’s sunny evocation of Zephyrus is tonic for the soul. Check out Christina Pluhar’s version with the ensemble L’Arpeggiata.