In my experience, very few people have heard of this book though it has a sort of...underground cult following. Now, I adore this book but I'm no good at describing it so instead I'm going to quote a bit from the Wikipedia article to give you an idea of it.
If you dont want to read all this let me try my best to sum it up a bit:
The main character is a tattoo parlor employee who buys an apartment that holds the belongings of a recently deceased old man with no family and among them he discovers a copiously large sheaf of notes to be organized into a novel. The old man had been writing them up and they turn out to be a study of a documentary concerning a house who's interior is larger than the exterior and the family who owns the house and all the subsequent happenings, including the gradual increase in the houses internal size. Upon seaching, however, there is no record of such a film.
Here's where things get interesting. The text of the book is formatted bizarrely, mirroring how the words are supposed to make you feel. There are a huge number of footnotes citing real books and other references as well as fictional ones. There are a number of strange happenings including the fact that one of the characters of the 'film' is, at one point, reading the very book that's being edited. There are philosophical and religious themes, anti religious themes, paradoxes......
It is a very, ery strange book, but a very good read. I highly reccomend it.
And yes, it was necessary to put all this. ^_^
Quote:
House of Leaves begins with a first person narrative by Johnny Truant, a Los Angeles tattoo parlor employee. Truant is searching for a new apartment when his friend Lude tells him about the apartment of the recently deceased Zampanò, a blind, elderly man who lived in the same building as Lude.
In Zampanò's apartment, Truant discovers a manuscript written by Zampanò which turns out to be a very academic study of a documentary film called The Navidson Record.
The rest of the novel alternates between Zampanò's report on the fictional film, Johnny's autobiographical interjections, and occasional brief notes by unidentified editors, all woven together by a mass of footnotes. There is also a fourth narrator, Johnny's mother, whose voice is presented through a self-contained set of letters titled The Whalestoe Letters. Each narrator's text is printed in a distinct font, making it easier for the reader to follow the sometimes challenging format of the novel.
In Zampanò's apartment, Truant discovers a manuscript written by Zampanò which turns out to be a very academic study of a documentary film called The Navidson Record.
The rest of the novel alternates between Zampanò's report on the fictional film, Johnny's autobiographical interjections, and occasional brief notes by unidentified editors, all woven together by a mass of footnotes. There is also a fourth narrator, Johnny's mother, whose voice is presented through a self-contained set of letters titled The Whalestoe Letters. Each narrator's text is printed in a distinct font, making it easier for the reader to follow the sometimes challenging format of the novel.
Quote:
The format and structure of the novel is unconventional, with unusual page layout and style typical of ergodic literature. It contains copious footnotes, many of which contain footnotes themselves, and some of which reference books that do not exist.[1] Some pages contain only a few words or lines of text, arranged in strange ways to mirror the events in the story, often creating (paradoxically) both an agoraphobic and a claustrophobic effect. The novel is also distinctive for its multiple narrators, who interact with each other throughout the story in disorienting and elaborate ways.
Quote:
There are many unusual, and often disorienting, elements of House of Leaves.
One interesting feature of some paperback editions of the book is that the cover of the book is slightly smaller than the pages themselves, causing the edges of the pages to peek out of the side of the black cover. The gap on the paperback cover is exactly 1/2 inch (The initial difference in size between the inside and the outside of the house in The Navidson Record is actually 1/4 inch, soon after becoming 5/16 inch, and so on).
[edit] Typography
Page 134 from the book House of Leaves, an example of the typography used in the novel.The text of the book is arranged on the pages in such a way that the method of reading the words sometimes mimics the feelings of the characters or the situations in the novel. While characters are navigating claustrophobic labyrinthine sections of the house's interior, the text is densely, confusingly packed into small corners of each page; later, while when a character is running desperately from an unseen enemy, there are only a few words on each page for almost 25 pages, causing the reader's pace to quicken as he flips page after page to learn what will happen next.
The unorthodox typography and arrangement of chapters or sections is similar to works by Milorad Pavić, allowing the reader to jump around from section to section at will while following footnotes or the multilayered narrative.
It has been noted that the font used for the narratives of different people is relevant. Johnny's font is Courier, Zampanò's font is Times, the Editors' font is Bookman, and Pelafina's font is Dante.
[edit] Codes
Many things are hidden within the text of the book. Going through the first letter of footnotes 27 through 42 spells the author's full name; the first letter of footnotes 46 through 57 spell his surname. Portions are written in alternating short and long paragraphs which turn out to be Morse code that correspond to the text. A seemingly random list of names on pages 64-65 produce a code when the first letter of each of the individual's last names are added together, spelling out the phrase "A LONG LIST". Some codes, like the author's name, are simply fun to notice. Others actually have an impact that gives greater depth and meaning to the portion being read. One of Pelafina's letters includes a coded message apparently addressed to Zampanò, which reads: "My dear Zampanò, who did you lose?"% The endpapers of the US hardcover edition of the novel contain hexadecimal characters, which are actually an AIFF audio file of an excerpt from Poe's track "Angry Johnny" when saved as a file in a hex editor.
[edit] Colors
Throughout the entirety of House of Leaves (even including the cover and publishing information), the word house is colored blue (grey for non-color editions of the book and light grey for red editions), as in house, and is, in many places in the book, offset from the rest of the text in different directions at different times. Foreign-language equivalents of house, such as the German Haus and the French maison are also blue. Red and full-color editions of House of Leaves have the word Minotaur and all struck passages colored red.
On the inside cover, where the Library of Congress information is listed, there is a note about differences in editions. In the full-color edition of House of Leaves, a struck line appears in purple in Chapter XXI.
Purple is associated throughout the novel with Pelafina, as it is the color of her long nails, and also the color of the ink Johnny is putting into needles when he has his panic attack in the supply closet.
The inside of the cover mentions a full-color "first edition" version including braille. The following editions are known and confirmed to exist:
Black-and-White Edition - No colored words. Plain black text. House in grey. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
Blue Edition - House in blue. Minotaur and struck passages in regular black text. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
Red Edition - House in light grey. Minotaur and struck passages in red. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
Full Color Edition - House in blue. Minotaur and struck passages in red. On the jacket, A Novel and the Pantheon logo in purple. In the book, First Edition and the struck line in Chapter XXI in purple. The word "braille" is replaced with seven X's. Appendices are full color plates.[5]
Danielewski leaves much of the interpretation of the choice of colors up to the reader, but he has mentioned in interviews that the choice of the color blue is in part drawn from the bluescreen technique used in filmmaking.[6]
The check mark
The check mark appears on the lower right hand corner of page 97. It is possibly a reference to Pelafina's letter requesting that Truant "Place in [his] next letter a check mark in the lower right hand corner. That way [she'll] know [he] received this letter" (House of Leaves 609). However, the check mark is not present in the UK edition of the book.
One interesting feature of some paperback editions of the book is that the cover of the book is slightly smaller than the pages themselves, causing the edges of the pages to peek out of the side of the black cover. The gap on the paperback cover is exactly 1/2 inch (The initial difference in size between the inside and the outside of the house in The Navidson Record is actually 1/4 inch, soon after becoming 5/16 inch, and so on).
[edit] Typography
Page 134 from the book House of Leaves, an example of the typography used in the novel.The text of the book is arranged on the pages in such a way that the method of reading the words sometimes mimics the feelings of the characters or the situations in the novel. While characters are navigating claustrophobic labyrinthine sections of the house's interior, the text is densely, confusingly packed into small corners of each page; later, while when a character is running desperately from an unseen enemy, there are only a few words on each page for almost 25 pages, causing the reader's pace to quicken as he flips page after page to learn what will happen next.
The unorthodox typography and arrangement of chapters or sections is similar to works by Milorad Pavić, allowing the reader to jump around from section to section at will while following footnotes or the multilayered narrative.
It has been noted that the font used for the narratives of different people is relevant. Johnny's font is Courier, Zampanò's font is Times, the Editors' font is Bookman, and Pelafina's font is Dante.
[edit] Codes
Many things are hidden within the text of the book. Going through the first letter of footnotes 27 through 42 spells the author's full name; the first letter of footnotes 46 through 57 spell his surname. Portions are written in alternating short and long paragraphs which turn out to be Morse code that correspond to the text. A seemingly random list of names on pages 64-65 produce a code when the first letter of each of the individual's last names are added together, spelling out the phrase "A LONG LIST". Some codes, like the author's name, are simply fun to notice. Others actually have an impact that gives greater depth and meaning to the portion being read. One of Pelafina's letters includes a coded message apparently addressed to Zampanò, which reads: "My dear Zampanò, who did you lose?"% The endpapers of the US hardcover edition of the novel contain hexadecimal characters, which are actually an AIFF audio file of an excerpt from Poe's track "Angry Johnny" when saved as a file in a hex editor.
[edit] Colors
Throughout the entirety of House of Leaves (even including the cover and publishing information), the word house is colored blue (grey for non-color editions of the book and light grey for red editions), as in house, and is, in many places in the book, offset from the rest of the text in different directions at different times. Foreign-language equivalents of house, such as the German Haus and the French maison are also blue. Red and full-color editions of House of Leaves have the word Minotaur and all struck passages colored red.
On the inside cover, where the Library of Congress information is listed, there is a note about differences in editions. In the full-color edition of House of Leaves, a struck line appears in purple in Chapter XXI.
Purple is associated throughout the novel with Pelafina, as it is the color of her long nails, and also the color of the ink Johnny is putting into needles when he has his panic attack in the supply closet.
The inside of the cover mentions a full-color "first edition" version including braille. The following editions are known and confirmed to exist:
Black-and-White Edition - No colored words. Plain black text. House in grey. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
Blue Edition - House in blue. Minotaur and struck passages in regular black text. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
Red Edition - House in light grey. Minotaur and struck passages in red. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
Full Color Edition - House in blue. Minotaur and struck passages in red. On the jacket, A Novel and the Pantheon logo in purple. In the book, First Edition and the struck line in Chapter XXI in purple. The word "braille" is replaced with seven X's. Appendices are full color plates.[5]
Danielewski leaves much of the interpretation of the choice of colors up to the reader, but he has mentioned in interviews that the choice of the color blue is in part drawn from the bluescreen technique used in filmmaking.[6]
The check mark
The check mark appears on the lower right hand corner of page 97. It is possibly a reference to Pelafina's letter requesting that Truant "Place in [his] next letter a check mark in the lower right hand corner. That way [she'll] know [he] received this letter" (House of Leaves 609). However, the check mark is not present in the UK edition of the book.
