House of Leaves

I'll just copy over my comments from the Literally Dead thread:

I finished this today! OK, I “finished” it, having skimmed a lot of the material aside from the narrative of the Navidson Record. This is my second time around and I didn't have patience for a lot of Johnny's story.

I was hovering between a 3 and 4 rating, because I recognize the intricate layering work Danielewski did here, but I also found Johnny's parts insufferable, other than the very early bits in the tattoo shop where he feels something stalking him.

However, I realized a lot of my criticisms just bring up ways that Danielewski anticipated/elicited those criticisms. For example:

* The book can come off as pretentious. But that makes the opening line of the Navidson section a really keen joke: it's a torturously acadamic-ese sentence reflecting on “authenticity.” Cute, MZD.

* The ending of the Navidson narrative struck me as clunky this time around. Karen saves the day with ThE pOwEr Of LoVe. But this does fit with the established theme that the labyrinth reflects what you bring to it. Which - wait a minute - is what the book itself does as well.

*Johnny's voice and the academic Zampano voice aren't distinct. Zampano exhibits Johnny's erroneous “could of” formation within the Navidson Record, while Johnny busts out with $5 words and poetic, fancy wording that doesn't at all match with his history and status. OH, but is that just MZD pointing out to the reader that this is all falsehood and confusion, and reminding us Johnny isn't trustworthy and maybe none of this is legit at all?

And basically, if you start reflecting about the book in any way, you can go down a rabbit hole of deep literary analysis or just fun puzzle-thinking. Surely that deserves a tip toward the higher star rating.

(But I still hated Johnny's preposterous sexcapades and the general Male Gazeyness of the whole thing.)