Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves

by Michael J. Seidlinger

“There was a book. Oh man was there a book. It is still to this day a book I mention it to any book lover if asked for a recommendation. The best books stick with you, often reminding you of the power, and potential, of storytelling, and House of Leaves is one of those books.”—Michael Seidlinger, in this Bookmarked volume on Mark Z. Danielweski’s classic of experimental contemporary literature, House of Leaves.

Michael J. Seidlinger is the author of several novels, including Falter Kingdom, The Strangest, The Fun We’ve Had, and The Laughter of Strangers. He serves as Electric Literature‘s Book Reviews Editor, as well as Publisher-in-Chief of Civil Coping Mechanisms, an indie press specializing in innovative fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He’s coping.

Genres: Horror, Books About Books, Fiction

184 pages, Paperback

Published April 25, 2017

About the author

MICHAEL J. SEIDLINGER is the Filipino American author of The Body Harvest, Anybody Home?, and other books. He has written for, among others, Wired, Buzzfeed, Thrillist, Goodreads, The Observer, Polygon, The Believer, and Publishers Weekly. He teaches at Portland State University and has led workshops at Catapult, Kettle Pond Writer's Conference, and Sarah Lawrence. You can find him at michaeljseidlinger.com.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

House of Leaves is like an addiction. It pulls the reader in with the same kind of obsession that the characters themselves display. It leaves one with that incredible NEED for more while still being totally complete, so there's no way to resist picking up this book to be able to dig even further in, to get inside what it was like for someone else being the only way to go any further since all that was written. There's just no way that wasn't going to be amazing, though the text makes clear Seidlinger certainly felt more doubts along with way. This works marvelously though, a spot on mix of enough of the book to give a framework, thoughts and riffs on the book itself, links into writing, and links into writing this actual book. It's exactly what I would have wanted, though had no clue to ask for and thus in no way expected. The best part for me, and I may be completely wandering off on my own here, is the way it feels like it fits House of Leaves as an additional narrative layer, distinct and varied yet containing some of the same threads, as if an integral part of the total whole. I really got the feel that Seidlinger wrote this for House of Leaves as much as he wrote about it for his readers. Certainly more than I was expecting for a work of literary analysis and homage.

[Codey]

This is probably the most awful thing I have ever read in my entire life. I can appreciate the fact that this series aims to share an author’s experience at reading another piece of work, and that this is by no means an analysis of House of Leaves; but this reads like an angsty, egocentric, pseudo-intellectual, early 20 year old’s diary. It’s as if Holden Caulfield grew up and wrote a book, although Caulfield would likely understand the difference between “it’s” and “its”. Extraordinarily disappointing.

[Michael Seidlinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the stars for "House of Leaves," the book that revealed to me the joy of both reading and writing.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What to even say about this book...it’s certainly a fav. Of you like behind sucked into a book, this one’s for you- but hold on for the ride. The weird part- if you ask anyone who has read this book to pick a quote from it that he or she sums up
the book, you would get many different responses.

Besides the dedication page that reads “This book is not for you.”
I would go with:
“Little solace comes to those who grieve when thoughts keep drifting as walls keep shifting and this great blue world of ours seems a house of leaves moments before the wind.”

[Caitlyn Strubinger-Campbell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fan. I enjoy a dark convoluted tale as much as the next person but this one…this was like an English assignment, book review, dark terror, and scrapbook all rolled into one. I felt that the endless footnotes and references were very distracting and I love Terry Pratchett’s footnotes! The story that is found and compiled was entrancing but the endless footnotes of the life of the compiler were droll and gave me no interest in further investing into his life. Did I read every detail and appendix in this book? Yes I did. Did I enjoy doing so? No. I appreciate the author’s zeal to keep the reader invested by turning the book in different directions instead of just the pages. However, at some point you have to draw the line.

[Hayden Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difficult to read, but that made it entertaining. It was definitely a chore to finish but I'm glad I did, and now I can stop being haunted by it. It was always so daunting to pick up and keep track of everything that was going on, with multiple unreliable narrators narrating other unreliable narrators, so the book at the end feels both like a very sober, dry academic paper, while also feeling like a fever dream somewhere between imagination and reality. I would be morbidly curious to discover the person I'd have become at the point in the future when I decide to re-read this, as I can't for the life of me imagine that I would do that at this point in time.

[Antti]

April Fool Day!

[Clay Vermulm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is outrageous, terrifying, beautiful, tragic, hilarious, and heartbreaking all at the same time. I cannot remember the last time I was this compelled to read on and re-read and re-read again.

[James C Daly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was certainly an experience, I enjoyed it.