kaiielle
This book is so weird, I can't handle it. It would be 5 stars if I felt like I could recommend it to everyone, but this book was incredibly difficult to get through at times and so I don't think it's for the every day reader. This book is still friggin' awesome though, and if you are actually willing to put in the effort to read it, you will be rewarded.
Even just trying to explain this story overall is rather hard. Trust me, I had to do this about 10 different times during the past month while I was reading this and had friends and family asking what the book was about.
In a nutshell, this story is very multi-layered. You have a guy named Zampano who dies and leaves behind this manuscript he wrote which is a critque of a documentary called The Navidson Record, created by filmmaker Will Navidson. The documentary is about a house that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, a house that shifts and molds and changes on its own, whenever it wants. He created this film about the house because he was positive that nobody would believe him when he talked about the house. A man named Johnny Truant finds Zampano's manuscript after he passes and decides to sift through it and throw his own narrative into the manuscript as well, so he essentially becomes the narrator of this story. The book shifts very frequently between Zampano's manuscript and Truant's ramblings about his own life, and this is where it can get very complicated and difficult to read, especially if you are like me and not nearly as invested in Truant's life as you are in Zampano's manuscript/the documentary.
I had to remind myself often that this entire book is fiction, because there is so much detail to all the footnotes throughout the manuscript and the massive Appendix at the end of the book has so much information that the story will frequently refer to. I recall part way through the story, being told in a footnote to refer to a section of the Appendix that ended up being around 60 pages of reading!
I found it so awesome that the book essentially "transformed" and changed just like the house was doing to the characters. Was it hard to read sometimes? Definitely. The crazy amount of footnotes, changes in the type and style and amazing amount of words at certain points in the story that were pointless and you didn't really even have to read (at least I hope you didn't have to because I didn't...), was a bit exhausting. But was it fun? Yes.
My favourite part of this story, hands down, was the actual manuscript about the documentary. The house and its affect on Will, Karen, the kids, and everyone else that entered the house, was so interesting to me. I would love to watch the documentary, if it actually existed. I didn't mind the shifts to Johnny's life, and his character really went through a massive change throughout this story which was interesting to read, but it definitely wasn't my favourite part. I was always eager to rush through it and get back to the manuscript.
About half way through the book, I discovered that apparently there is a website somewhere online where people talk about this book and really dig into it and analyze the footnotes and the meanings of things. I will be checking that out before I return this book to the library, as I guarantee there are small things I missed throughout this story.
I'm not sure if I will read this book again. It's long and complex. But I'll definitely never forget it.
This book is so weird, I can't handle it. It would be 5 stars if I felt like I could recommend it to everyone, but this book was incredibly difficult to get through at times and so I don't think it's for the every day reader. This book is still friggin' awesome though, and if you are actually willing to put in the effort to read it, you will be rewarded.
Even just trying to explain this story overall is rather hard. Trust me, I had to do this about 10 different times during the past month while I was reading this and had friends and family asking what the book was about.
In a nutshell, this story is very multi-layered. You have a guy named Zampano who dies and leaves behind this manuscript he wrote which is a critque of a documentary called The Navidson Record, created by filmmaker Will Navidson. The documentary is about a house that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, a house that shifts and molds and changes on its own, whenever it wants. He created this film about the house because he was positive that nobody would believe him when he talked about the house. A man named Johnny Truant finds Zampano's manuscript after he passes and decides to sift through it and throw his own narrative into the manuscript as well, so he essentially becomes the narrator of this story. The book shifts very frequently between Zampano's manuscript and Truant's ramblings about his own life, and this is where it can get very complicated and difficult to read, especially if you are like me and not nearly as invested in Truant's life as you are in Zampano's manuscript/the documentary.
I had to remind myself often that this entire book is fiction, because there is so much detail to all the footnotes throughout the manuscript and the massive Appendix at the end of the book has so much information that the story will frequently refer to. I recall part way through the story, being told in a footnote to refer to a section of the Appendix that ended up being around 60 pages of reading!
I found it so awesome that the book essentially "transformed" and changed just like the house was doing to the characters. Was it hard to read sometimes? Definitely. The crazy amount of footnotes, changes in the type and style and amazing amount of words at certain points in the story that were pointless and you didn't really even have to read (at least I hope you didn't have to because I didn't...), was a bit exhausting. But was it fun? Yes.
My favourite part of this story, hands down, was the actual manuscript about the documentary. The house and its affect on Will, Karen, the kids, and everyone else that entered the house, was so interesting to me. I would love to watch the documentary, if it actually existed. I didn't mind the shifts to Johnny's life, and his character really went through a massive change throughout this story which was interesting to read, but it definitely wasn't my favourite part. I was always eager to rush through it and get back to the manuscript.
About half way through the book, I discovered that apparently there is a website somewhere online where people talk about this book and really dig into it and analyze the footnotes and the meanings of things. I will be checking that out before I return this book to the library, as I guarantee there are small things I missed throughout this story.
I'm not sure if I will read this book again. It's long and complex. But I'll definitely never forget it.