Muss es sein?

Here is the cover of House of Leaves. I finished it a few weeks ago during my stay in Newport Beach with my sister Lissie and our grandparents. It follows the life of a filmmaker, Will Navidson, who moves into a house in Virginia with his family and sometime thereafter discovers that it is vastly bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. A man called Zampanó writes the story as an analysis of The Navidson Record, the film Will eventually releases documenting their stay in the house. There is also an introduction by someone called Johnny Truant, who also writes a series of long-winded, often unrelated footnotes throughout the novel. On top of these are a few notes by "The Editors," whose identities are never revealed. 

These  combined, the reader sees the story through four lenses: Navidson's, Zampanó's, Truant's, and his or her own.  Truant's account is especially interesting, because it describes his experience reading House of Leaves, which influences the reader's experience and reactions throughout.

I am not a person who reacts easily to literature or music or movies, and when I do, it's because of connections I make with other ideas or events. For me, the lenses that frame the plot of House of Leaves are what makes it brilliant. The combined reactions of characters within the plot and characters independent of it incites the reader to react more than usual and to make note of his or her reactions.

But after all this analysis, all I can say is that this book really blew my mind. It's full of cryptography and crazy formatting, etcetera, etcetera. There's a reason why it's got a cult following. Read it.

(And if you do, let me know. I have a project I want to put together regarding it.)