I’m currently in the process of reading the book House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. Very interesting read, but a tad overwhelming at times. One of those books that almost challenges you not to read it by being so daunting.
I’m only about 120 pages into it right now and it reads almost like a textbook edited with the ravings of a delinquent. Somehow, though, it really works.
What’s interesting is that last year I saw POE open up for Depeche Mode and POE was talking onstage about this book her brother had written and he was onstage playing with the band. Wasn’t until I’d already started reading the book did I realize that this is the book she was talking about onstage.
So has anyone else ever read this? What do you think?
I know of a few people who are reading it right now and who really enjoyed it. I meant to check it out myself, because I also remember hearing Poe mention it during her show.
And no, I’m not stalking you.
PSful suggestion: put the title in the subject line for a few more hits next time…
I read House of Leaves. Possibly the most bizarre yet compelling horror story I’ve ever read.
Poe has a new CD out called Haunted, and she sings at some length in various songs about her brother’s book. (IMO, the CD kinda sucks, but the title track is good.)
The premise of the house being bigger on the inside than the outside is sorta cliche, I suppose, but the side-stories are incredible, and the fel of the book in indescribable. It reads in certain places like an actual documentary of these events, which is what the author intended, but that style of writing is very intriguing to me.
When you’ve finished the book, feel free to e-mail me if you want to talk about it. I’m curious to get someone else’s perspective on it; no one I know has been too interested in reading the whole thing.
And on another note, it recently came to my attention that Stephen King, hack writer extraordinaire, more-or-less ripped off Mark Z.'s premise of an expanding and sinister house. This became Mr. King’s abominably bad network mini-series, Rose Red.
[hijack]
Ugh. I’ve never understood his popularity. King’s ideas are somewhat creative, but I find his writing formulaic and in desperate need of good editing. Besides, he’s just so…tacky. I’d rather find blood in my stool than read another one of his books.
I hated this book. I bought it based on some glowing reviews I’d read, got about 100 pages into it, then gave up and returned it. It felt like an art school student’s project – a germ of an interesting idea buried under so much artifice and gimmickry that it collapses. Or, more accurately, the work of a guy who had a bunch of shallow ideas and tried to have them all support each other, instead of taking the time to develop any single one and make it interesting.
All of the story-within-a-story-within-a-story gimmicks, and footnotes, and typographical tricks would have been great if they were adding more impact to a good story. They’re not enough to carry an entire book, though.
