Review
“Who has never killed an hour? Not casually or without thought, but carefully: a premeditated murder of minutes. The violence comes from a combination of giving up, not caring, and a resignation that getting past it is all you can hope to accomplish. So you kill the hour. You do not work, you do not read, you do not daydream. If you sleep it is not because you need to sleep. And when at last it is over, there is no evidence: no weapon, no blood, and no body. The only clue might be the shadows beneath your eyes or a terribly thin line near the corner of your mouth indicating something has been suffered, that in the privacy of your life you have lost something and the loss is too empty to share.”
‘House of Leaves’ is a story about a guy [Johnny Truant] who stumbles upon a blind old man [Zampano] who died and left behind a curious journal. The journal is about a film. And the film is about a Pulitzer Prize winner in photography’s [Will Navidson] family who moves in a new house. Little did they know, the house is…haunted.
It is amazing how this novel played with the frame of mind of not only the characters but also the reader. Johnny’s discovery of the journal became his gateway to a slow and steady descent to madness. The vividness of his story is unnerving as you watch (or, I guess, read) as the man falls apart while he dissects the truth behind the journal. On the other hand, Will’s story drags you in a whirlpool of events. Pulling you in the dreadful peculiarity of his new house, his hunger for its mysteries, and all the resulting negligence towards his family with his endeavour.
What makes this interesting aside from the story alone is how the characters’ background stories are laid down. Johnny is mysterious with his truth shrouded by his lies to which you’ll question the reality of anything that he ever said. Will consumed by his work, overlooks his responsibility towards his family. More intriguing is that since Will is a part of a film that is being dissected, there are critiques that are throwing in ideas of what he may or may not be.
The book is a romance, satirical impression of the academic criticism, and psychological horror story; albeit not directly frightening, it invokes an unending sense of dread and anxiety. It will make your room feel cold and will not make you feel alone—for a presence seems to be standing in the room with you every time you read it.
Something to take note is that this novel is better when consumed slowly. Live in each chapter and digest everything that’s happened before moving on to the next.
A multifaceted work of literature that offers a variety of themes for readers, this book is unlike any other books you’ll ever read. It reads like a textbook—having plenty of footnotes, foreign languages, scribbles that are unfinished, texts in peculiar formats, and frequent text font and colour changes. The novel can get pretty exhausting. Granted, the ergodic formatting of the novel delivers a refreshing new way of reading.
An extraordinary novel that provoke readers; ‘House of Leaves’ is more than just a book, it is a whole new level of commitment to reading. And if you think you’re ready to read this, think again. This book is not for you!
About the Book
Mark Z. Danielewski is an American author best known for his books House of Leaves, Only Revolutions, The Fifty Year Sword, The Little Blue Kite, and The Familiar series.
Danielewski studied English Literature at Yale. He then decided to move to Berkeley, California, where he took a summer program in Latin at the University of California, Berkeley. He also spent time in Paris, preoccupied mostly with writing.
In the early 1990s, he pursued graduate studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television. He later served as an assistant editor and worked on sound for Derrida, a documentary based on the life of the Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher Jacques Derrida.
His second novel, Only Revolutions, was released in 2006. The novel was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award.
His novel The Fifty Year Sword was released in the Netherlands in 2005. A new version with stitched illustrations was released in the United States 2012 (including a limited-edition release featuring a latched box that held the book). On Halloween 2010-2012, Danielewski “conducted” staged readings of the book at the REDCAT Theater inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Each year was different and included features such as large-scale shadows, music, and performances from actors such as Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad).
On May 12, 2015, he released the first volume, The Familiar (Volume 1): One Rainy Day in May in his announced 27-volume series The Familiar. The story “concerns a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten…” The second volume, The Familiar (Volume 2): Into the Forest was released on Oct. 27, 2015, The Familiar (Volume 3): Honeysuckle & Pain came out June 14, 2016, and The Familiar (Volume 4): Hades arrived in bookstores on Feb. 7, 2017, and The Familiar (Volume 5): Redwood was released on Halloween 2017.
His latest release, The Little Blue Kite, is out now.
