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Summary: A Neo-Borgsian Riff Collage
Review: I love this book. It blends the idea of novels, articles, films, television and the internet. It's a horror novels that exploded into something better and more exciting. It's like Jorge Luis Borges went drinking with Stephen King, and was joined by David Foster Wallce (on a journalism kick); then the whole thing was blended up by Jeff Noon and put back together by a stoned Stephen Hawking and read to you by John Malkovich after a three-day bender. But better.Read it or despair.
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Summary: Psycadelic Horror Trip
Review: This is one mother of a book. While it gets slightly tedios in the middle it is strange enough to keep you reading. The insane text and added story/footnotes made it even better. Also, this is one of the first fictional horror novels that confinced me of its veracity for a time.
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Summary: Poe meets Kafka meets Borges
Review: I'm not a horror fan. I've never had an interest in the genre at all. I was given this book for my birthday by a friend and finally attempted to read this 700 page large trade paperback- largely so my friend would quit bugging me. I'm very glad I relented and read "House of Leaves". Calling this a Horror novel is like calling "Smokey and the Bandit" a cop show. Danielewski is far too literate a writer to be pigeon-holed in on genre. This is more like reading modern day Poe meets Borges meets postmodern with literary influences from Melville to Pynchon. A book- a collage really of narratives/commentaries/appendices- about the mysterious appearance and expansion of an inner hallway/world within a house in Virginia turns into an experiment in fear and reality. There are several layers of narration, reference to intellectual works (some real, some only invented for the story). Even the layout of the novel is part of the plot and style- not done in an overly clever manner- but instead helping to move the story along. This is a literature in the same league as Powers, Franzen and DeLillo. Highly recommended.
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Summary: A Fine Line Between Genius And Insanity
Review: I told myself I needed to read this book because of the cross-marketing involved with author Danielewski's sister Poe's simply amazing CD "Haunted" (5 stars, easily)..."House Of Leaves" and "Haunted" are presented as companion pieces from diferrent media, but in truth there are very few parallels or even noticable similarities between the two works ("Haunted" having to do with the coming to terms with the relationship between a duaghter and a recently deceased father, whereas "House Of Leaves" is...well, like nothing I've ever read before).
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Having determined this to be the case, I was able to read "House Of Leaves" with an open mind and without any preconceived notions as to what the book itself offered. I had read reviews (and heard some the book's text read in Poe's excellent "Drive-By" remix of "Hey, Pretty" from the re-release of "Haunted"), but none of that adequately prepared me for the challenge of this book. And "Challenging" is the best word that fits the manner of reading that awaits anyone who picks it up.
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The sheer exhaustion that Danielewski had to have put himself through in the presentation by which the book is structured is enough to tire the reader...the structure of the book becomes more and more maze-like the more deeply involved the plot becomes. Text is written upside-down, backwards, diagonally
...and that says nothing about the exhausting amount of footnotes, endnotes, even musical notes that accompany the text. There are at all times at least three stories going on all at once, all of them with their own twists and turns, subtly connected but just as equally independent. I'm convinced that this is one of the best books written in the last 10 years, but I'm also convinced that the author may well have become involved to the point that to a degree, his own "house" was compromised in a way he could not have foreseen before undertaking this incredible work, arguably the last great work of the 20th Century (or the first great work of the 21st Century, depending on how you feel about how the year 2000 fits).
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In short, challenge yourself to read this book...even if it's only to see how it ties in with the Poe CD...I promise you'll reward yourself for the effort.
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Summary: Different... but Worth the Effort
Review: I was pleasantly surprised to find so many good reviews of House of Leaves, and I particularly recommend the reviews from Mark Hansell and Steve Wood for some interesting thoughts on the whys and hows of the book. Given that so many people have worked to begin deconstructing this book (and I say begin because it's so complex that I wonder if such a deconstruction could ever be finished), what can I possibly add to the mix? I've recommended this book to quite a few friends, and the reaction I most often get is a kind of waffling, will-I-like-it sort of thing. There is the perception (sometimes true) that experimental or art house books aren't approachable to the average Joe. I don't think that's necessarily true, but the fact remains that I loved House of Leaves but still can't seem to voluntarily wade my way through James Joyce's Ulysses. Does this mean that I think House of Leaves was better? Not necessarily. Ulysses was a spectacular book, but it just didn't grab me. In this case, it's a matter of taste. So what I'd like to try and do is help you decide if House of Leaves will suit your taste or not. So, without further ado, here are three of the major issues that seem to have frightened off my friends. Perhaps they'll help you make a decision. The Plot:
If you're looking for slasher flick horror, this may not be the best choice for you. This book is subtle. It's about fear of the unknown... an obsessive type of fear. Stop for a minute and contemplate this: You're measuring out some of the rooms in your house to put in bookshelves. Only you find that, inexplicably, when you add up all of the inches inside and out, your house is larger on the inside. And every time you measure inside those rooms, they somehow get bigger. Does that give you the heebie-jeebies? If you're meeting the idea with complete skepticism and boredom, you might want to look elsewhere. The Format:
Many of the reviewers have made reference to the fact that some of the pages have odd formats, from a few letters on a page to upside-down writing. Is this something that ought to scare you away? Not necessarily. It's not done in an effort to be avant garde (said in obnoxious French accent in homage to Monty Python fans everywhere). The premise is that the book is written on various scraps of paper. As the manuscript runs toward its end, the writer is running out of paper, so he starts writing on every available surface. Envelopes, scraps of paper, receipts, the backs of stamps. Why? Because the guy is obsessed with his topic. Does it do anything for the story? I think it adds to that feeling of obsession. And if it doesn't work for you, it's actually a fairly short section of the book. It shouldn't interfere too much with your enjoyment. The Footnotes:
Do footnotes sound too academic for your taste? I should point out that a lot of the footnotes are story-related. They provide backstory on how the narrator found out about this fact or that one. As a matter of fact, the footnotes are a story all of their own. Yes, there are citations from magazine articles and books. Some are real, some are fake. If you're interested in that kind of thing, it adds another mystery to the whole book. If that kind of thing makes you yawn, you might get a little bogged down. Most of the pages have footnotes on them, and you really lose something if you skip them. But remember that this is still fiction, and the footnotes reflect that. They're far from boring. To make a long story short (why didn't I say this in the first place?), my advice is not to let the format scare you off. It's different, yes, and it will likely take you a little longer to read than the average book. But if the idea of a subtly unnerving, highly original plot appeals to you, it's definitely worth the effort. One final note is that this book was written in tandem with Poe's CD, Haunted. (Poe and Mark Danielewski are brother and sister.) Some of the songs on the CD echo themes and scenes found in the book, and it really adds a new dimension to check them both out at the same time. Very highly recommended.
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Summary: Missing
Review: Simply amazing. I loved this book. I wouldn't read it a lone, I'd only read it at school or in the presence of others.
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Summary: This book is good- only it's better
Review: I don't even know where to start. This book is like nothing I've ever read before. It's unexplainably intruiging, oddly interesting, and creativly terrifying. It's think-out-of-the-box craziness. But that's just it- it's better than all that. The insane thing about this book is that it's better than anyone knows. This book is the best book in history, only no one understands it enough to realize this, except the author. Along with all those wonderful things, House of Leaves is confusing, a bit dragging, and often like wading through thick mudd in search of something you have never seen before. But underneath all that is purely incredible literature that I can't even begin to explain. And heck, I haven't even finished it yet. I'm still wadding through that Mudd that I was talking about. In conclusion, this book is unexplainibly good. It's a winding staircase leading to horror movie than doesn't exist except for on the staircase that somehow forgot to wind. This book is pure craziness... only it's a little muddy.
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Summary: Nightmares
Review: I used to have nightmares about my grandparents' house having a trapdoor into a second part of their house that you couldn't see from the outside but was extremely huge. This book takes that nightmare and expands it 10-fold to disproportionate measure. The style is slightly patchwork-y but if you like texture and dimension, the typography will be welcome eye-candy, the psychology will be enjoyable mind-torture, and the secret codes and "possibilities" left unsaid will drive you to sit back down and read it all over again!
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Summary: Love it...or hate it. No middle ground.
Review: I look at this book like the herb cilantro. You'll either love it or hate it. No one reads this and says "it was OK." Amazingly put together, the _story_, if you want to call it that, is told from a perspective that I found unique and haunting. The book is quite nerve chilling; my fiance read it and it kept her up at night wondering if the house she was in held the same mysteries.
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Summary: For those with patience...
Review: I tend to be a very impatient person and at first the book was frustrating for me to read. There are passages written within passages on several pages, those that are turned sideways, and even those written upside down. However, if you can get the hang of the layout, you will be hooked. A story about a strange house and the happenings within, that I found difficult to put down. It was intriguing and psycholgically disturbing at the same time.
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