Alex Weller’s Reviews > House of Leaves > Status Update

On the day the old man, Zampanò, died, Lude first noticed something was wrong when Zampanò didn't go out for his morning walk. When he didn't go out for his evening walk either, he got into Zampanò's apartment and discovered the body. Zampanò died alone and poor, at eighty years old. But a week later, Lude discovered something in Zampanò's apartment. What could it be?

Johnny begins telling the story of how he grew to hate sleeping: After getting evicted from his apartment after telling his landlord he wasn't Charles de Galle, his friend Lude told him about an old man living in an apartment in his building, who claimed he was dying. Johnny thought nothing of it at first, finding himself a decent place on his own. But during the final hours of December 31, 1996, the old man died.

Just started the novel's introduction. Our narrator, Johnny Truant, is having trouble with nightmares to the point where he has tried so many drugs to stop them, from simple over-the-counter pharmacy fare to full-on illegal shit. Goddamn! How bad are these nightmares?