The House of Interpretations

 

House of Leaves

Mark Z. Danielewski

It's a heavy book, full of interpretations. You'll know this much, just at first glance. Really, you'll know this as soon as you flip to the inner cover and see the collage artwork of what looks like a mad man's ramblings: matchbooks partially burned and scribbled with notes, pieces of toys, Polaroid photographs of a rather unassuming house taken from several angles and distances, the long serpentine curl of a tape measure. This is the first hint you get at what lies inside the frontispiece, this collection of evidence, the seemingly chaotic way in which it's all assembled. "Appearances may deceive you," seems to be the whisper coming directly out of the pages of Mark Z. Danielewski's book,  House of Leaves.

The book, a ten year labor of typesetting, editing, and love, is a twisted passage of viewpoints and notes and footnotes and installations of The Navidson Record, an account of how a fairly normal and livable house for a famous photographer's family becomes a cavernous pit of mystery. The 5 & 1/2 minute hallway becomes something so massive that time cannot account for it, nor can other rules of physics. A cleverly-placed text box which repeats for many pages describes all the materials the walls do *not* contain in this insidious hallway, as the surrounding text begins to meander and spiral off into the margins, twisting upside down and stuttering at a breakneck pace as an exploratory group discovers the mental and physical horrors of a house that looks perfectly normal from the outside, but holds expansive physically-impossible secrets just inside its doors.

The preponderance of authors to the book gives the narrative a complexity seen in other works by Nabokov, Wallace, and even Eggers. Even though the endless pages of footnotes and corrections and completely unorthodox typesetting can make the book sometimes feel like a tedious and frustrating chore, it is almost always worth it - Danielewski's wicked ping pong match between the old man, the tattoo shop employee (Johnny) that finds his notes, the voice of the Navidson Record the old man claims to have discovered, the almost-comical tone of the Editor who pieces together Johnny's findings and additions, they all come together in a swirling echo of quiet anticipation and a sense of horror that grows much like the House itself does. Every chapter, every section, is another room tacking itself on to the story, a mismatch between the outer world and in. No tape measures can ever resolve this book tidily, and that's as it should be.

The perfect companion to this piece, of course, is Poe's album, Haunted. Sibling to Danielewski, Poe has created a fine concept album which stands on its own, which deals with the death of their father. Poe references the Navidson Record directly with the track entitled "The 5 & 1/2 Minute Hallway." The fun twist to this song is that it's also mentioned in the book - the Navidson Record is regarded as somewhat of an urban legend inside of the book's world, and a band with a female lead singer feature a song called "The 5 & 1/2 Minute Hallway" in their set. Other tracks directly referencing the book are "Exploration B," "Dear Johnny," and "House of Leaves." Answering machine messages and echoes lace this album with much of the same dark foreboding that lines the interior walls of its soul mate book.

Critically acclaimed, House of Leaves is definitely dense and difficult to get through, especially for those with shorter attention spans. Fans of the book Infinite Jest should have no problem, as should anyone who likes a densely-packed suspense thriller. This reviewer's advice is to let the book work its magic on you, and to keep at it until you can't turn back. The payoff is evident in many passages in the book, including a fairly early one where Johnny is reading through the old man's notes at the tattoo parlor where he works. You'll know what I mean when you read it! The book is also packaged attractively, a solid, well-made cover and additional appendices with evidence pertaining to the states of mind of the authors as they are affected by the Navidson Record, the typographical gymnastics across each and every page, the blue ink used for each instance of the word "house" (no matter what language it appears in!), the frustrating strings of X's for material that's been scratched out or obliterated. An immersive book, House of Leaves is a good, haunting read. It'll have you measuring your walls and ceilings and closets for sure! 

 

Robin Beck grrl-e-grrl.com contributor