KATG Book Club: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

[william]

From Amazon

Had The Blair Witch Project been a book instead of a film, and had it been written by, say, Nabokov at his most playful, revised by Stephen King at his most cerebral, and typeset by the futurist editors of Blast at their most avant-garde, the result might have been something like House of Leaves. Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel has a lot going on: notably the discovery of a pseudoacademic monograph called The Navidson Record, written by a blind man named Zampanò, about a nonexistent documentary film--which itself is about a photojournalist who finds a house that has supernatural, surreal qualities. (The inner dimensions, for example, are measurably larger than the outer ones.) In addition to this Russian-doll layering of narrators, Danielewski packs in poems, scientific lists, collages, Polaroids, appendices of fake correspondence and "various quotes," single lines of prose placed any which way on the page, crossed-out passages, and so on.

Please have read though Chapter Five by September 7th, 2007

[Vudell]

tomorrow? gee, I could run down to B&N I suppose...

[Bebe]

Sweet, I live in the future, so I get more time. Imma go buy it today

[DWarrior]

Why is house blue?

[Bebe]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

Why is house blue?

Prolly a result of the cut and paste

[Vudell]

Originally Posted by Bebe

Prolly a result of the cut and paste

just got back from B&N, it was also highlighted a different color on the copy they had. but it was $40 something so I couldnt get it. I got His Dark Materials [strafer mentioned it] and Choke instead.

[paul_r]

Originally Posted by william

From Amazon

Had The Blair Witch Project been a book instead of a film, and had it been written by, say, Nabokov at his most playful, revised by Stephen King at his most cerebral, and typeset by the futurist editors of Blast at their most avant-garde, the result might have been something like House of Leaves. Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel has a lot going on: notably the discovery of a pseudoacademic monograph called The Navidson Record, written by a blind man named Zampanò, about a nonexistent documentary film--which itself is about a photojournalist who finds a house that has supernatural, surreal qualities. (The inner dimensions, for example, are measurably larger than the outer ones.) In addition to this Russian-doll layering of narrators, Danielewski packs in poems, scientific lists, collages, Polaroids, appendices of fake correspondence and "various quotes," single lines of prose placed any which way on the page, crossed-out passages, and so on.

Please have read though Chapter Five by September 7th, 2007

"Item info: No copies available in any library."

no copies in any Westminster library wtf whats going on

[william]

Originally Posted by paul_r

no copies in any Westminster library wtf whats going on

It's apparently an under-the-radar, very popular book.

[36D]

Originally Posted by william

It's apparently an under-the-radar, very popular book.

Cult classic books are more likely to be stolen from libraries than your typical Mary Higgins Clark. Just sayin'