Fiction - Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves (2000)

Obviously, like any creature of the internet, I heard about this book from this XKCD strip and Wil Wheaton's blog post. But it wasn't until I saw it on a Buy 3 Get the 4th Free table at my local B&N that I bought it. But then there it sat on the bookshelf until a friend of mine saw that I had it, and encouraged me to read it.

House of Leaves is nigh impossible to describe. It starts out being about this one guy having been dealt a poor hand in life, and his friend lives in an apartment complex. And in this apartment complex is an old hermit of a man that has just died. They go into his apartment and find tons and tons of writing, apparently a dissertation on a film called The Navidson Record, where a photojournalist and his family move into a house that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. At first, this discrepancy could be easily explained away; the difference is only a quarter of an inch after all, so somebody just messed up measuring somewhere. But then a door appears that should lead outside, but instead leads to a dark, cold place that just keeps changing in shape.

More than just being hard to describe, House of Leaves is hard to analyze. First off, I could give two shits about Johnny Truant. This guy is really just a gateway to his mother's letters, of which there is a whole separate book apart from just the insanity at the appendix. But the more fluid language of Johnny is a nice contrast to the highly technical analysis of Zampano. But the odd formatting is only briefly touched on before it HITS like a ton of BRICKS. You'll know it when you see it, but I implore you to power through until at least the Minotaur chapter, which is a work of suspenseful art.

The problem is that then the whole book seems to fall apart.

Too much time is spent after that chapter away from what everyone is interested in, the fucking house, and instead on Navidson and Karen's relationship. Listen, dude. No one gives a fuck. Even the so-called climax is not as powerful as that chapter in the middle of the book.

I know, you're thinking "hur hur, bigger on the inside, it's a TARDIS". And when I read the description on the inside flap, I felt the same way, with a dash of "aren't there a million SCPs that do this?". But it's really more than that. This book really explores what that concept means. If it's bigger on the inside, how big is that? Twice the size? Miles more? Bigger than the earth?

For that chapter and approach alone, I must suggest you get yourself a copy. For the typography tricks, I beg you to read it. The whole thing isn't the best in the world, but you will not regret your time spent on this book.

9.85/10

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