"House of Leaves" by Mark Danielewski.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

What did you think?

[panader0]

1. Tell me more

Looking for something good to read after re-reading Kerouac's "On The Road"

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Very unique, very creepy book.

Reads like a collaboration of all my favorite authors- Lovecraft, King, Borges, Umberto Eco, and more all rolled into one.

Very avant garde style. It doesn't read left to right from beginning to end. There are footnotes. Footnotes within footnotes. Footnotes within those foot notes. Text missing, upside down, diagonal. Not without rythme or reason, it all serves a purpose.

The plot involves a young man, Truant, looking for a place to stay. His drinking buddy shares an apartment building with an elderly man, named Zampano, who just passed away, leaving an open apartment... and a strange collection of notes and manuscripts, partially burned and ruined.

The manuscripts are a kind of literary study or exegesis of a documentary film.

The documentary film "The Navidson Record" is made by a man, Navidson, who moved into a new house intending to make a documentary on the subject of regular, suburban lifestyles. However, upon returning from a trip, he and his family discover a closet door on a wall where there was no door before. The doorway opens into a hallway with no apparent end. Their house is larger on the inside than it is on the outside.

"The House of Leaves" is partly Zampano's analysis of "The Navidson Report" (and the really creepy shit therein), and partly editorial comments and personal reflections by Truant, as he slowly decends into insanity(?) from reading Zampano's work. The text style reflects the odd claustrophobia and agoraphobia of those experience the house in "The Navidson Record." There's lots of appendices, and indexes, codes, and all sorts of neat stuff.

It's obviously not a book for everybody. But I'm very glad I picked it up.

[cemaphonic]

3. I've been intrigued by it before in bookstores

but thought it looked kinda gimmicky. It's good, then? Maybe I'll have to pick it up. It certainly sounds like the kind of thing I would like.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. I'd call it more experimental than gimmicky.

Definitely a one-off thing. The text reflects the labyrinthine nature of the story and the house itself. That's what reminded me of Borge.