House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski

 

HOL is the 2000 best-selling, debut novel from Mark Danielewski, a fairly astonishing accomplishment considering how unusual the plot and format is and how dense the storyline is. Multi-lawyered, to say the least, the tale revolves around the narrator, a tattoo apprentice in Hollywood, who stumbles upon a deceased recluse's (named Zampano) report on an apparently fictional documentary called The Navidson Report, which reportedly documents a family's journey of discovery in a mysterious house that they just bought.

As the narrator, Johnny Truant, attempts to organize the Zampano's scattered notes, he becomes more and more obsessed with the story and he, himself, also becomes reclusive and, fairly literally, haunted by the tale. The chronicle is based on Zampano's description of the documentary but with copious footnotes from both Zampano and Truant (and, occasionally, an Editor), who describes his descent into mania as it relates to the plot, as well as his discoveries regarding Zampano's writings. Truant starts off as a basic Hollywood partier - he lists numerous clubs, bars and the like that we are intimately familiar with in real life from our rock'n'roll past - with a heavy dose of curiosity and some organizational skills, which gets him in the mess in the first place. His footnotes are highly conversational - to the point of using the annoying "should of" instead of "should have", and the like - and detail his detachment from reality.

Throughout the narrative there are massively extensive, often poetic, tangents from both Zampano and Truant, as well as occasional notes from the Editor, all of which helps to disorient you and cause you (at least, me) to lose your place in the original story. But you eventually learn that these tangents all have meanings - either great or small.

Interestingly enough, considering that even in the novel the documentary, The Navidson Report, is purported to be fictional, there are innumerable articles, essays and even books written about it, at least per Zampano. To say that this tale is multi-layered is more than an understatement! 

As Zampano reviews the Report and the explorations of the impossible in the house - sometimes with pages of footnotes that only consists of lists of names - Truant is going through his own personal madness and, as if to highlight his, the layout of the book suddenly becomes very fluid, with text appearing upside down, sideways, backwards and more. (Once again, it is fairly incredible that Danielewski was able to convince a publisher to print the books with these unusual layouts throughout - a testimony to the strength of the story, I suppose).

Some people are lost to the darkness, some are saved, and at the end, you wonder if any of them were ever real, even in the sense of the story. There are no firm conclusions and there is a large appendix to give you other possibilities to ponder.

As with the characters within, the reader can easily become infatuated to the point of compulsion with the tome - as the many online discussions will attest - and it is pretty haunting. You will most likely ask your friends to read it simply so you can discuss the potential prospects within. Certainly recommended but be careful not to lose yourself in it!