House of Leaves

My Comments:

I heard about this mysterious book and when I first flipped through the book I was even more intrigued by the odd arrangements of words on the pages. Sometimes a paragraph would be printed backwards or there'd be just one single word on the entire page. Of course, not every page in the book is printed strangely. Most of the time, I noticed a certain clever creativity in the arrangements of words if and when the print was abnormal. For example, a sentence described a person going down the stairs so that sentence would be in the shape of a downwards flight of stairs. As you can see in one of the sample pages I provided below, there is a letter begging for forgiveness and the arrangement of the words on that page reflects how mentally consumed the person is with the desperate need for forgiveness. Sometimes I can't figure out why a page is printed oddly, but usually there's a creative reason. If you do an image search on google, you'll see a bunch of sample pages along with crazy stuff because this book originally circulated among those in the underground scene.

I must admit that I didn't finish reading House of Leaves. It's a big thick book! I stopped about a quarter to half way into it because it can be somewhat exhausting and at times it dragged on too long. However, my friend who recommended it assured me that the patience is worth it at the end. I guess I'll have to pick it up again in the future to finish it and exercise my patience. But it was definitely interesting to read in the beginning! House of Leaves makes for a great collection or something to intrigue your house guests with.

Summary:

Had The Blair Witch Project been a book instead of a film, and had it been written by, say, Nabokov at his most playful, revised by Stephen King at his most cerebral, and typeset by the futurist editors of Blast at their most avant-garde, the result might have been something like House of Leaves. Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel has a lot going on: notably the discovery of a pseudoacademic monograph called The Navidson Record, written by a blind man named Zampanò, about a nonexistent documentary film--which itself is about a photojournalist who finds a house that has supernatural, surreal qualities. [...] -John Ponyicsanyi

Danielewski's eccentric and sometimes brilliant debut novel is really two novels, hooked together by the Nabokovian trick of running one narrative in footnotes to the other. [...] Zampano, a blind Angelino recluse, dies, leaving behind the notes to a manuscript that's an account of a film called The Navidson Report. In the Report, Pulitzer Prize-winning news photographer Will Navidson and his girlfriend move with their two children to a house in an unnamed Virginia town in an attempt to save their relationship. One day, Will discovers that the interior of the house measures more than its exterior. More ominously, a closet appears, then a hallway. [...] They discover a vast stairway and countless halls. The whole structure occasionally groans, and the space reconfigures, [...]. Nevertheless, the novel is a surreal palimpsest of terror and erudition, surely destined for cult status. (Mar.) - Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sample pages from the book: