Muss es sein?
After the main text ends there is still the appendix to deal with. How disturbing can an appendix be, you ask? May I present Appendix II.E, otherwise known as The Whalestoe Letters. This collection of letters from Truant's institutionalized mother tell yet another story of fear, paranoia, and love. Every bit a story in their own right, The Whalestoe Letters are now also published separately.
This is a book that should be read alone. Read it by moonlight. Or candlelight, flashlight, spotlight - it doesn't really matter. There is no light powerful enough to expose the entirety of your the void. Yes, you should definitely read it alone... with a bottle of scotch.
With a little luck, you'll dismiss this labor, react as Zampano had hoped, call
it needlessly complicated, pointlessly obtuse, prolix-your word-, ridiculously
conceived, and you'll believe all you've said, and then you'll put it aside -though
even here, just that one word, -aside-, makes me shudder, for what is ever really just put aside? - you'll carry on, eat, drink, be merry and most of all you'll sleep well. Johnny Truant, October 31, 1998
So, what is it? A written documentary? Critique? Horror? A love story?
Yes.
Article comments
1 - Zaldor
Interesting fact: Mark Danielewski is the brother of singer Poe - and there is a version of her song, "Hey Pretty" in which Mark reads some of this book over her song. I haven't checked out the book yet, but I plan to!
2 - Brady
Although there are flaws in this book, I can't help but praise it almost roundly; It sucks you into its labyrinth and you go willingly. Here in this novel it is always night- even during the daytime: the nightime of our undiscovered primal souls. There is nothing more awesome and disturbing than the unknown within each one of us and insomuch as this recondite aggregate of all our fears takes completely subjective form these fears are ours alone - and that is scary as hell. Great read, deep and entertaining too. The only quibbles I have are with the Truant character (he is an awkward combination of street smart and literate which comes off a bit forced (especially in the former)) and the sometimes superfluous (and annoying) literary tangents which seem placed in the novel to prop up the narrative and give it more gravitas. The endless journalistic and periodical footnotes are fun but also begin to wear one down with their obvious self-aggrandizement. It begins to discredit the novel (especially the Navidson Record) insomuch as the detail afforded each moment and exchange between characters seems a bit too belaboured and overwrought (especially the copious psychological examinations - "who cares"? - I think reads one and the audience feels that way too. Perhaps Danielewski could have left even more up to the imagination regarding these analyses vis a vis the reader's interpretation? Anyway, notwithstanding this reader's critique, House of Leaves is an original and significant work which should be read by anyone into truly creative and poignant fiction i.e. anyone into Borges, Pynchon, Delillo, Kafka, Auster, Joyce et al..
3 - Justin
Pins you to the candel light your reading by.
noir to it's rubix cube core