- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £5.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in House Of Leaves for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £5.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
The cult classic.
Product Description
Johnny Truant wild and troubled sometime employee in a LA tattoo parlour, finds a notebook kept by Zampano, a reclusive old man found dead in a cluttered apartment. Herein is the heavily annotated story of the Navidson Report.
Will Navidson, a photojournalist, and his family move into a new house. What happens next is recorded on videotapes and in interviews. Now the Navidsons are household names. Zampano, writing on loose sheets, stained napkins, crammed notebooks, has compiled what must be the definitive work on the events on Ash Tree Lane.
But Johnny Truant has never heard of the Navidson Record. Nor has anyone else he knows. And the more he reads about Will Navidson's house, the more frightened he becomes. Paranoia besets him. The worst part is that he can't just dismiss the notebook as the ramblings of a crazy old man. He's starting to notice things changing around him . . .
Immensely imaginative. Impossible to put down. Impossible to forget. House of Leaves is thrilling, terrifying and unlike anything you have ever read before.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
While enthusiasts and detractors will continue to empty entire dictionaries attempting to describe or deride it, "authenticity" still remains the word most likely to stir a debate. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
While enthusiasts and detractors will continue to empty entire dictionaries attempting to describe or deride it, "authenticity" still remains the word most likely to stir a debate. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was planning to write a longer review of this book, but I now don't feel I can add much to the in-depth and thoughtful review left by "drkennydouglas" (see below).
Yes it is clever, very clever. And yes, it is scary. And yes, the scariness unfolds gradually, partly though the asides in the footnotes, as a good horror story should do. However, what I will say is that I found this book very hard work to read.
Most of the time I found the innovative typographical design increased my enjoyment of the book. I've probably used the wrong word there, but what I mean is that the text is printed in all sorts of different ways, sometimes upside down, or working up the page (when the character was climbing a ladder), or in a small box in the middle of the page that gets smaller on subsequent pages (as the character crawls through an ever smaller tunnel), sometimes in mirror writing, and once in a box that went "through" the pages. I particularly enjoyed the sections where there were only a few words on each page which had the effect of ramping up the excitement in an almost cinematic way.
The book has two main stories that unfold side by side. One is in the main text (the Navidson Record), the other unfolds in the (extensive) footnotes (the Johnny Truant story). But there are also numerous pseudo- academic asides which can be quite tedious (I have to admit I mostly skip-read these - you can't just ignore them because they have little snippets that are relevant to the main stories). You also end up flipping backwards and forwards through the pages, and I remember saying to myself at one point "I do wish they'd printed this book in the order I am supposed to read it!".
Overall I enjoyed this book, and at times found it hard to put down. But is was hard work to read and I was rather relieved when I had finished it. If your taste goes to lightweight fiction then I suggest you take note of the review further down by "Bookworm Lady a1za".
Yes it is clever, very clever. And yes, it is scary. And yes, the scariness unfolds gradually, partly though the asides in the footnotes, as a good horror story should do. However, what I will say is that I found this book very hard work to read.
Most of the time I found the innovative typographical design increased my enjoyment of the book. I've probably used the wrong word there, but what I mean is that the text is printed in all sorts of different ways, sometimes upside down, or working up the page (when the character was climbing a ladder), or in a small box in the middle of the page that gets smaller on subsequent pages (as the character crawls through an ever smaller tunnel), sometimes in mirror writing, and once in a box that went "through" the pages. I particularly enjoyed the sections where there were only a few words on each page which had the effect of ramping up the excitement in an almost cinematic way.
The book has two main stories that unfold side by side. One is in the main text (the Navidson Record), the other unfolds in the (extensive) footnotes (the Johnny Truant story). But there are also numerous pseudo- academic asides which can be quite tedious (I have to admit I mostly skip-read these - you can't just ignore them because they have little snippets that are relevant to the main stories). You also end up flipping backwards and forwards through the pages, and I remember saying to myself at one point "I do wish they'd printed this book in the order I am supposed to read it!".
Overall I enjoyed this book, and at times found it hard to put down. But is was hard work to read and I was rather relieved when I had finished it. If your taste goes to lightweight fiction then I suggest you take note of the review further down by "Bookworm Lady a1za".
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Part academic paper, part horror story, part too-real-to-be-comfortable description of escalating insanity, part impenetrable footnote-maze, part (multi-)layered meta-novel - and fully enigmatic and wonderful, House of Leaves is one of the strangest and most memorable books I've ever read. A mere review can't possibly do it justice; isolated and analyzed, its very different and seemingly incompatible elements seem odd, frightening, pointless, sick, funny, and anything in between. Put together, though, the whole thing develops a thoroughly weird and unique attraction.
Having completed the book, I can image Mark Danielewski thrusting his fists skywards, cackling madly and roaring, Viktor Frankenstein-style: "It's alive!" It feels like something that shouldn't be alive but somehow still is.
Danielewski's creation is by no means flawless, the nuts and bolts show in places - but in most cases, I have the impression that the flaws and imperfections are intended.
This one is going to stick, keeping to the edges of my mind like shadows; never quite disappearing, and - when night comes - crawling out of hiding, demanding attention again.
Having completed the book, I can image Mark Danielewski thrusting his fists skywards, cackling madly and roaring, Viktor Frankenstein-style: "It's alive!" It feels like something that shouldn't be alive but somehow still is.
Danielewski's creation is by no means flawless, the nuts and bolts show in places - but in most cases, I have the impression that the flaws and imperfections are intended.
This one is going to stick, keeping to the edges of my mind like shadows; never quite disappearing, and - when night comes - crawling out of hiding, demanding attention again.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Unless you have quite a lot of patience and a willingness to read an 'experimental' novel, you'll probably get bored/lost/frustrated/angry with this typographically erratic, non-linear novel. Having said that, you could be a rebellious reader (postmodern texts often claim to require an active reader, but if you are following the trail the author has left does that make you particulraly active? Maybe it's more active to read against the author's wishes -random thought), ignore most of the footnotes and what you'd be left with is an intriguing, cleverly elaborated story. Is it horror? Well, it didn't make me particularly frightened. I'd say it works better as a philosophical conceit - what if space defies our conception of it and constantly shifts beyond our possibilities of knowledge? In that sense it did make me wonder/feel concerned about whether the rooves, floors, walls surrounding me might suddenly disappear.
I think this feeling was heightened by the typographical games Danielewski plays. For me these were one of the best parts of the book because the layout of the text seems to be mirroring what is happening or being talked about in the main part of the text, so for example in the Labyrinth chapter, the text is in unconnected blocks on the page which are the circuitous paths you read/walk by following the footnotes back and forth across the pages.
As for the footnotes themselves, someone else reviewed this and said that they are misleading but I think that is the whole point - throughout the book we are told that no-one apart from Zampano knows about The Navidson Record. He is deliberately using misleading or fictive quotes and sources to write a faux-academic paper about an imaginary film. The quotes and footnotes then are meant to add a touch of veracity to this game with fictive levels but should not be taken too seriously.
The one thing that got on my nerves was the whole Jonny Truant narrative. He rambles on for pages about not very much, his story is a lot less interesting than the main one and his diversions always seem to happen when the main story is at its most interesting. However, he is an essential component for understanding the book so I wouldn't advise skipping his parts - plus, towards the end a lot of the ideas etc seem to tie together around him. My own theory s that he is meant to be taken as the sole author of the whole work (i.e. he is Zampano and Jonny Truant) because there are lots of textual echoes between Zampano's bits and the letters of Jonny's mother.
At times I thought Danielewski seemed to be hinting at language's/text's (in)ability to represent space and with all the typographical games to be pushing at the boundaries of what can be represented (and how it can be represented). I'm sure someone's PhD is lying somewhere in this dense, encyclopedic novel full of ideas as there is such an inexhaustible stream of information that it could take years of study to understand it from all it's different angles. I think Danielewski is sending up whilst at the same time working within this academic framework with many of the footnotes which are speculating about the film's possible meaning (in fact, it's almost worth reading just for these which rip-take the pointless, convoluted, preposterous ideas of mainly American, mainly literary academics).
All in all, this book is not for the fainthearted, is hard work to read but contains an intriguing story, and ambitious and poetic textual experimentation which make it a rewarding read.
If you're into the whole non-linear, multiple narrative thing but want a read that isn't quite as complex as this try Perec's 'Life A User's Manual' and Calvino's 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller'.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
House rules
Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves is without question the most original novel of the naughties, first published in 2000. Read more
Published 13 months ago by S. Taylor
Blood, sweat and tears... From the reader.
What a depressing reading experience.
I am a stubborn person and yet, about halfway through this I simply had to give up. Read more
I am a stubborn person and yet, about halfway through this I simply had to give up. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Olivia
The germ of a good story marred by pretension and self-indulgence
A perfectly ordinary family -- an award-winning photojournalist called Will Navidson, his ex-model partner Karen Green and their two children -- move into a large house on Ash Tree... Read more
Published 14 months ago by S. J. Payne
Perfectly scary
If you want to be so scared that you cough up your spleen, buy this book. That is all
Published 15 months ago by MikeTheHumphrey
Just didn't work for me...
This book could have been so good but for me it just didn't work! There were bits that I really enjoyed but then just as I was starting to enjoy it things would go off on an... Read more
Published 17 months ago by feegee
Brilliant Haunted House Story
What is House of Leaves? Well it's a very strange book, is what. Written in the style of a textbook we learn of a house somewhere in America which has within its walls a... Read more
Published 18 months ago by rhysthomashello
Great premise, flawed execution
Having read the reviews and the synopsis, I'd already made up an idea of what 'House of Leaves' would entail; a horror story in the mould of Lovecraft/Poe etc in the form of 'The... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. Gareth J. Hughes
Compelling book
Intellegent and compelling read, definately not a light book but well worth the effort, brilliantly written. Highly recommended
Published 21 months ago by Lisa Bird
Gripping and original
I'll keep this short. This is not a flawless masterpiece, but it is original, gripping and offers a new reading experience. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2009 by dead joe
Zampano, Johnny Truant and Navidson
At times utterly infuriating, at others creepily absorbing, even terrifying, House of Leaves is either a tour de force of paranoia and mind-numbing horror, or a huge con-trick. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2009 by Eileen Shaw
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
