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This is punchy little book of short shorts, all beautifully written and full of original images. Forsyth delivers tales that combine wonder and simplicity, and it all flows together magically. ]]>
Mr. Danielewski has created a monster here, and it seems like people are in one of three camps: 1)they don't get the joke 2)they're in on the joke 3)they get the joke but don't think it's very funny.
I'm not sure what camp I belong to yet. The novel intertwines two main narratives: one supposedly Zampano, taking the form of a critical work about an underground documentary-- the other belonging to Johnny Truant, an innocent who discovers the lost papers of Zampano and gets sucked into their horror. Johhny Truant's narrative comes to us in the form of footnotes.
The story Zampano reveals is that of the family featured in the film: Will Navidson, his partner, and their two children. The family moves into a new house to discover hallways and closets appear randomly. Navidson, the owner of the house, gathers a group of friends, family, and experts to explore the long hallway in his home, only to discover the hallway leads to a neverending labyrinth of halls, caverns, and space.
The Navidson story in itself is intriguing, creepy, and even touching. I admit, I was frightened to sleep with the book sitting on the nightstand next to my bed. It had some magic power over me, and I was frightened of the dark, and frightened to go in my basement. So the horror story that is the meat of the book, five stars.
However, I'm a little less enthused by the frame, the Johnny Truant aspect. Not because I don't see how it fits with the Navidson story. I easily see how the two narratives mirrored one another. I think my main problem with the novel is that it is too in love with itself. Danielweski embeds codes, winks, symbols, clues, etc, ad nauseum. Besides the footnotes, the novel contains appendices that include poems, letters, quotes, etc, which bring so much attention to the fact that we're supposed to discover hidden things about the novel.
I'm all about hidden discoveries in books; however, I'm not so enthused when the author makes it so obvious that he's layering levels of meaning and interpretation. Some of the discoveries I made were intriguing, and some of the myseteries the novel creates are exciting. However, I'm not sure I'm taking the bait on this one. I will probably spend the next week hitting the House of Leaves message board to read about theories and codes and hidden things people have found, and perhaps that will make me appreciate the book more. But I don't know. ]]>
robyn Detterline
took the never-ending book quiz.
| questions answered: | 471 |
| correct: | 307 (65.2%) |
| skipped: | 27 |
| best streak: | 22 |
| questions added: | 3 |
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