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

[william]

Originally Posted by Scat

I read this book last summer. My word of advice is to ignore the writings of the young man who found the book. He has long footnotes that sometimes last pages, but it's not very interesting and doesn't add much to the story. I found it really tedious.

I'm five chapters and .... What D says:

Originally Posted by 36D

Seriously? I think the parallels between Truant and the writings of Zampano is one of most interesting points of the story. Besides, how could you ignore that? That's like only reading the dialogue of a novel and never the description.

More to come next Friday.

[DaveNJ]

I love this book. Read it a year ago, and it's a complete trip.

[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'

[StuartPants]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

New Brunswick Library has it, where I happen to live. I can't place on hold because I forgot my pin, but I already called it so don't take it please.

you live in New Brunswick? I thought you were more a south jerseyite... I'm not far from you at all.

[william]

For discussion

Does Zapanó's footnotes add to the tale or are they distracting? Was the author showing conceit by having so many or is it part of the art form?

So far, are Tom's footnotes a separate tale altogether or are the part of the story?

Thoughts on any others?

[jesikat]

Originally Posted by 36D

You won't find an eBook of it, Random House never did one. It'd be too difficult with the typsetting and format of the book to put it in eBook form. Closest thing is if someone scanned it all, which I'm sure someone did at some point.

i never thought of that, but you're right, that would be insane.

[36D]

Originally Posted by william

For discussion

Does Zapanó's footnotes add to the tale or are they distracting? Was the author showing conceit by having so many or is it part of the art form?

So far, are Tom's footnotes a separate tale altogether or are the part of the story?

Thoughts on any others?

Excellent discussion question!



Wait...who's tom?

[william]

Don't have my book with me - isn't Tom the "narrator"'s name? It appears in the forward.

Naw? Well, "the footnote narrator dude" whose not Zapanó